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

The best advice I can offer [for new NITARP participants] is to ask questions. No one wants to do this (including me) because you don’t want to be perceived as having the least knowledge in the room. Also, don’t miss the opportunity to work side-by-side as peer with your students. It’s valuable for you as an educator and valuable for the students to experience this as well.
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.
[student:] I’m still not sure what I want to pursue in my life, but this experience has definitely opened up a lot of new possibilities that I hadn’t considered before. I got to see what a real scientific research project could look like, and had a blast attending the AAS. Before this year, I wasn’t thinking about going into Astronomy as a field of study or career path, but now I am.
Programs like this are incredibly important to the growth of teachers. I know that I certainly grew both as a person and as an educator through this experience. It was really fun to be thrown into a group with other people and have to work on working together and learning something entirely new.
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.

AAS - 2023

Quotes

Related Teams