• 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

  • This experience has made me realize that anyone can participate in astronomy research and that even amateur astronomers are an important part of scientific discovery and research. I've always had the thought that astronomers need to be masters at physics and math, and that's true to an extent. However, there are ways to "do astronomy" without having a PhD in it.
  • Given the longevity of the program, the consistency of the mentor astronomers and the inclusion of a mentor educator, I had expected the year to be somewhat prescribed and a path forward to be well-trodden. This was not the case (in a good way!) There were certainly deadlines to be met and techniques which had been employed successfully in the past that we newbies could use, but our original research was just that! Original! The end was not in sight at the beginning, and we ran into issues during our year which we were able to work through together.
  • [student:] I have experienced so many unique things that I literally blew my mind and created a spark in me. I now know that I want to be in the field of astronomy. I have learned so many research, time management, and teamwork skills that will still be with me for my whole life. Overall, NITARP has changed the way I look at the world in terms of science and lit a fire inside of me. It has been an experience that I will stick with forever.
  • NITARP allowed me to do real astronomical research and to learn alongside students because I was put into their shoes. Because of this experience, I am now a better educator and colleague.
  • The work that is done [in NITARP] is NGSS at it’s heart. Students and teachers do real, hard research where Google won’t help. Students can learn that science really is a best effort to expand understanding and knowledge (after covid the public perception of science has taken a hit with some groups).

Related Teams

AAS - 2024