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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:

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

  • My (original) NITARP experience prompted me to immediately start a scientific research group (like a club) that met before and after school. In Tennessee, Scientific Research is an actual laboratory course complete with state standards, so I started teaching that course when I moved to Tennessee. This year, I was able to expand my course with funding from the Tennessee Rural STEM Collaborative. I followed the example of NITARP and have located subject-matter experts as mentors for the students for their self-selected projects. Nine of my students are taking their research projects to the Regeneron science fair entry event in east Tennessee, including my two NITARP students, who are investigating light variations of stars in NGC 1245. No one from Greene County Schools (my school district) has ever had students present research at this venue.
  • It is hard feeling like you do not know what’s going on or not being strong in this content area, but it is an important reminder that this is often what our students go through. This experience was a good reminder that not everyone will absorb the content at the same pace and at the same time. I often felt behind on understanding the content, and when I did, I asked questions. It is important to ask questions!
  • If I had a nickel for every time I’ve already referenced the content of our NITARP project in class as we talk about various topics, I’d have well north of a couple bucks. Even more important than the content, however, is the process. I’ve been teaching the scientific method for over 20 years, but have never formally done it in the form of scientific research. Well, that changed with NITARP. As I move forward, I plan on incorporating more authentic scientific research into my class, not always in formal research, but simply in regular labs and activities: I’ll try to get the students to ask questions, decide what data they need, good ways to collect and analyze that data, think about their results and come to conclusions, and then report their findings to others, just as we did in our project.
  • [student:] This experience did change how I think about astronomers because before I only cared about the cool facts that they discovered. Now I realize that all their work is important because a lot of people worked very hard to find that information.
  • It was great to work with such dedicated and fun people, including teachers, students, and two certain Caltech astronomers. In fact, everyone in the astronomy community seemed very welcoming, friendly, and eager to share what they knew, especially if you needed help. I never expected to make such friends in this (or any) program.

Related Teams

AAS - 2023