• NASA
  • IPAC

Summer Visit - 2024 - StarChasers

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 StarChasers team came to visit in July 2024. The 4 core team educators attended, plus 12 students.

Quotes

  • I was surprised at how different each of the students were in our group. Each of the 12 students had a unique perspective and approach to learning and doing and it was fascinating to watch them all do science in their own special way.
  • The learning was also enjoyable. As teachers, we’re always learning new techniques and strategies and educational stuff, but it’s rare to just be able to learn new content. It’s good to know the ol’ noggin still works (mostly).
  • I’m looking forward to our results and to what generalizations we can make about our regions. I was also impressed (more so than surprised) by the receptiveness of the students to our project and work. Their diligence and enthusiasm was respectable.
  • [The best thing was] Watching my students get excited about astronomy and this research! As the week unfolded, my students became more independent and confident in what they were doing. Yay, science!
  • [student:] I had no idea astronomers did so much coding. It makes a lot of sense when you're dealing with data sets with hundreds of thousands of points, but it was interesting that everyone at IPAC knows how to code.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2024 - StarChasers