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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

  • I had no idea, perhaps idiotically, how much data analysis went into astronomical research. I learned that in order to be a successful astronomer you need to be able to code and understand raw data very well.
  • I enjoyed the process of original, authentic research. It was exciting to not know the answer: I was eager to see where the process took us and what we would find in the end. It was also cool to realize that I was helping to add a very tiny bit to the pile of human knowledge, that, somewhat in the words of Whitman, “the powerful play goes on, and I can contribute a (very tiny) verse”.
  • 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.
  • I think even more important than my learning, was the impact it had on the student I worked with. I think the entire experience showed him what it really means to collaborate and work hard and persevere. You just can’t give students an authentic real world experience in a classroom. Participating in NITARP was as “real-world” as it gets, and I think he came away from this experience with a new appreciation for what it takes to do real science and work in a group.
  • What has changed about my teaching is how I go about asking questions, and I have modeled this after the way Varoujan asks questions and WAITS. I don’t know if he knows this, but he is a master at what teachers call ‘wait time’, which is the process of waiting for students to answer a question and not jump in to answer it for them. He is so patient when asking all of us questions, and it gives us a chance to think and figure out the answer, even if we get it wrong the first time. Most teachers are not good at ‘wait time’ because they are uncomfortable with silence and want their students to know the answers. I have learned to ask better questions with my students and patiently wait for answers, and if my students have the wrong answer, it is OK, we work to figure it out together.

Related Teams

AAS - 2023