AAS - 2024

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 2023 and 2024 NITARP teams are attending the 2024 January AAS meeting in New Orleans, LA. The 2023 class was presenting results and the 2024 class was starting up. We had alumni raise money to come back as well. We sent about 50 people to the AAS and had a grand time. Please see the press release on NITARP from the AAS, and the special online article about NITARP at the AAS. All of the posters we presented are here. (In addition to the iPoster sessions as listed here, the physical versions of the 2023 teams' posters were up at the IPAC booth all day Tuesday.)

2023 teams:

171.01 McKay et al., Young stellar students and objects: Illuminating astronomy research for students and teachers (Monday 5:30-6:30)
171.02 Hickey et al., Building Confidence and Combating Imposter Syndrome Through Student-Educator Research Projects (Monday 5:30-6:30)
171.05 Garcia et al., Reaching for the Stars: How Research Experience Has Expanded the Scope of a High School Astronomy Club (Monday 5:30-6:30)
181.01 Kuper et al., Looking for Young Stellar Objects in Obscure Sharpless Regions (Monday 5:30-6:30)
201.05 Carpenetti et al., Building a Catalog of AGN with Erroneous Parallaxes Using WISE and Gaia (Tuesday 9-10)

Alumni:

167.01 Sperling et al., Student-Led High Altitude Ballooning into Solar Eclipses (Monday 5:30-6:30)
171.03 Rebull et al., NITARP Lesson Plans: Bite-Size Pieces of Authentic Science Research Experiences (Monday 5:30-6:30)
171.06 Newland, Using Google Colab to Teach Hubble-Lemaitre's Law with BOSS Data (Monday 5:30-6:30)
176.02 Rebull et al., Young Stellar Object Candidates in IC 417 (Monday 5:30-6:30)
203.03 Wojciak et al., Exploring Color-Magnitude Relationships Among Quasars with z between 1.5-1.75 (Tuesday 9-10)
458.21 Jones & Rutherford, The Three-Dimensional Structure of IC 2391 (Thursday 1-2)

Quotes

I am already going back to graduate school at least partly as a result of participating in NITARP. I have felt encouraged to look to other opportunities for professional development projects. I’d like to continue and build on the learning I’m experiencing as part of NITARP.
[student:] Before NITARP, I thought astronomical research may have been a solitary pursuit. After, however, I now realize how important collaboration is in scientific discoveries! Working with the team was one of my favorite aspects of the project. This project has made me value teamwork.
Giving highly motivated teachers a community to build their skills is a critical component of professional development that isn’t always an option, especially in small districts or specialized areas. NITARP gives an opportunity for teachers from smaller or more rural communities to find colleagues to collaborate and provide opportunities for students they would not otherwise have.
I realized being an expert in one field doesn’t necessarily make you an expert in all astro fields. I realized that each subfield had a community of astronomers who were familiar with each other’s work. And I began to see the small but vibrant community of NITARPers out there, doing their thing and helping each other out, as well as helping the next generation of teachers and students alike. I hope that I may grow into that.
The most interesting thing was getting to present to a variety of different people at AAS and meet so many folks. I felt like an expert because I was an expert at that point.

AAS - 2024

Quotes

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