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Summer Visit - 2012 - C-WAYS

The summer visit to Caltech is 3-4 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 C-WAYS team came to visit in July 2012. The core team educators attended, plus 12 students, and two additional scientists.  Dr. JD Armstrong (LCOGT/UH) and Dr. Babar Ali (IPAC) also assissted.

Quotes

  • Even though not all of us could do every step flawlessly, different strengths balanced the different weaknesses.
  • I learned that I am a lot more passionate about astronomy than I previously thought.
  • I personally found our open ended instruction sessions the most inspiring. As all team members struggle to program spreadsheets correctly and produce accurate plots, teachers and students shouted across the room asking questions, comparing answers and finding success. It was great when students and teachers compared results, found differences and then went back and problem solved. It was especially pleasing when student results turned out to be the correct results and they then helped their teacher see the error of their ways.
  • [For future participants,] I do recommend taking two students. The more eyes and ears, the better. They will pick up on stuff that you may have missed, and vice versa. They will also ask you great questions that challenge your understanding. If you can't explain it to them, it's great to have a mentor teacher and the scientist in the room to ask.
  • Working at a fast pace was exciting.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2012 - C-WAYS