• NASA
  • IPAC

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 attended 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:

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

  • The most interesting thing I did (fyi, this is like picking between ice cream sundaes and chocolate cake for dessert) was listening to the students present their posters at the iPoster sessions and the IPAC booth. What was interesting to me was their absolute ownership of the work which I am excited about for my own students (as well as for myself). I also enjoyed learning about the science and process behind their work.
  • NITARP has opened my eyes and made me more aware. It’s made me more aware of the larger community of scientists and educators that work together and learn from each other, and I’m grateful to be in that community now. It’s made me more aware of opportunities and possibilities: programs and achievements that I didn’t know I was able to do or even capable of doing, and I hope to do more in the future. And lastly, it made me more aware of curriculum resources out there: content, techniques, and specific activities, and I plan on incorporating them into my classroom.
  • [student:] The most interesting thing I learned over the whole year of the research was the way how astronomers conduct their research. Before coming into this program, I pictured astronomers to be observers of the night skies most of the time. I didn't realize that data analysis and programming were such huge components of the task. This experience has definitely changed my perspective and my expectations of what I picture an astronomer to be doing.
  • [student:] After NITARP, I have a clearer idea of what the future as an astrophysicist may look like and I am more prepared with experience to reach my career goals.
  • 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.

Related Teams

AAS - 2024