• NASA
  • IPAC

AAS - 2025

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 2024 and 2025 NITARP teams are attending the 2025 January AAS meeting in National Harbor, MD. The 2024 class is presenting results and the 2025 class is starting up. We had alumni raise money to come back as well. We sent about 40 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 2024 teams' posters were up at the IPAC booth all day Tuesday.)

2024 teams:

Alumni:


Quotes

  • Going to the conference and being in the NITARP program has definitely shown me that there are a lot of directions I can go beyond teaching. I also will be on the lookout for more opportunities that provide authentic research experiences for teachers because I feel like it brings so much to the classroom and reignites my passion for education.
  • NITARP was an amazing opportunity for both teachers and students. I learned valuable research skills, presentation skills and teaching techniques for astronomy and physical sciences. I had the privilege of working with a student from a foreign country and this project really helped build her confidence in science and public speaking.
  • This has been one of the most enriching, immersive and rewarding educational experiences I have had. Most professional development is an hour online while NITARP became a way of life for me for a year. It gave me the opportunity to talk astronomy every week not only with an astronomer but with our team of amazing individuals.
  • [student:] I understood how math-heavy astronomy is, but the amount of raw data that must be sifted through gave me an appreciation of the programming knowledge necessary to conduct large-scale studies.
  • I really want to authentically develop my personal skill sets so I really know how to do things. This means really committing to learning itself and not just the outcome of learning.

AAS - 2025