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Summer Visit - 2023 - SCHARP

The summer visit to Caltech is 4 days long and is the only time during the year of work when all the participants on the team come together in person to work intensively on the data. Generally, each educator may bring up to two students to the summer visit that are paid for by NITARP, and they may raise funds to bring two more. The teams work at Caltech; the summer visit typically includes a half-day tour of JPL, which is a favorite site for group photos. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The SCHARP team came to visit in June 2023. The 5 core team educators attended, plus 10 students.


Quotes

  • [student:] The most challenging aspect was navigating the various websites that we used to construct our data. It was frustrating sometimes because we were all learning and trying to figure out which button to press, whether this graph was correct or not, or which steps I am missing.
  • There is nothing like the group being in the same room to ask questions and to support each other. Also, listening to others’ questions is an important piece of this project – many times, I didn’t think of the question that was posed before it was asked.
  • [student:] The NITARP experience has certainly influenced my thoughts on college. Even though I am not considering majoring in astronomy-related fields, I think the research experience has ignited my passion for further participating in research in college or my future career.
  • [student:] I loved astronomy prior to the trip but I have even more interest in it now that I’ve gotten to do some actual work in the area.
  • [student:] The most important thing I learned was that it is okay to ask for help and ask questions I may have thought were rather “dumb.”

Summer Visit - 2023 - SCHARP