AAS - 2023

The Winter American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting is the largest meeting of professional astronomers in the world. NITARP educators attend an AAS first to meet their team, then they go home and work remotely for much of the year, and then attend an AAS to present their results. At any given AAS, then, we could have two NITARP classes attending - those finishing up, and those getting started. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The 2022 and 2023 NITARP teams attended the 2023 January AAS meeting in Seattle, WA. The 2022 class was presenting results and the 2023 class was starting up. We had alumni raise money to come back as well. We sent about 30 people to the AAS and had a grand time. Please see the special article on NITARP at the AAS. All of the posters we presented are here:

2022 Teams:

Ciambra et al., A More Complete List of YSO Candidates in AFGL 490
Benter et al., Survey of the Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products (SEIP) Catalog for Potential Debris Disks Around Main Sequence M Class Stars
Bonham et al., NGSS Science and Engineering Practices in Secondary Education through Real Astronomical Research
Swigert et al., Teacher Roles within NITARP: a 13-month Research Collaboration

Alumni:

Granucci, "Does a Solar Telescope generate more interest in astronomy than Night Observing Telescope?" (talk)
Kniezewski, "To Rain or Not to Rain: Correlating GOES Flare Class and Coronal Rain Statistics" (poster and press release; student alumna!)

Quotes

It was great feeling like we could actually ask questions and get real answers.
I am now more aware that astronomy can be a wider variety of things. Astronomers and astrophysicists can be visiting distant observatories, but they can also resemble highly technical librarians sifting through collected data to construct models and simulate complex systems from shards of glimpses into the EM spectrum.
[NITARP] also changed my ideas about the people who are astronomers and how astronomy gets done. Astronomy, I realized, might be more dependent on other fields than any other branch of science (or study in general): you need geologists, physicists, chemists, biologists(!), meteorologists, and engineers to successfully pull off many astronomical projects. It’s important to build good relationships with these people who could make or break your project. Fortunately, it seems most of these people are passionate about what they do: they’re working there for a reason!
In [...] NITARP, students and teachers get to be exposed to the process of being [an] astronomer. [...] Beyond the process, the teacher and student alike learn that science is conversational in which you learn together, help each other, and present your findings to others.
Why can't teachers go to conferences more often? Educators need support to gain experience and pass that experience on!

AAS - 2023

Quotes

Related Teams