• NASA
  • IPAC

Summer Visit - 2012 - HR4AGN

The summer visit to Caltech is 3-4 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 HR4AGN team came to visit in August 2012. The core team educators attended, plus 12 students, and one additional scientist.  The scientist mentor is Dr. Varoujan Gorjian. IPAC staff member Jacob Llamas (SSC) assisted, as did Dr. Jean-Christophe Mauduit (SSC).

Quotes

  • Throughout this experience I have already learned so much that has helped me in my teaching. I've gotten experience in a new area, gained confidence in my knowledge, and learned new analysis techniques. It has been refreshing and stimulating to be in constant conversation with people doing research in the field. As teachers, we can tend to become too comfortable in our day to day work and are at risk for losing creativity. This experience has forced me to look at something new and has inspired me to enrich and improve my classes.
  • I was surprised at how quickly the days flew by. This experience was completely engaging in every way.
  • [student:] This program really showed me that astronomy is not as much of a hands on science, which I have discovered I prefer. I still am quite interested in the field of astronomy, but I have realized that I would be more suited to possibly become a chemist because it is much more lab based.
  • [student:] The most surprising thing I learned was that Astronomers do not have to individually process all of the data they are interested in from raw data. I was unaware of the existence and availability of the various databases that exist.
  • From a teaching and mentoring view, I was happy to see and work with such motivated students and fellow educators.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2012 - HR4AGN