AAS - 2026

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 2025 and 2026 NITARP teams are attending the 2026 January AAS meeting in Phoenix, AZ. The 2025 class is presenting results and the 2026 all-volunteer self-funded alumni class is starting up. We sent about 35 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 2025 teams' posters were up at the IPAC booth all day Tuesday.)

2025 teams:

220.01 Edwards et al., “Stellar Rotation Within the Beta Pictoris Moving Group Using TESS Lightcurves”
403.01 Molohon et al., “Student and Teachers as Scientists: The Impact of Authentic Astronomy Research Experiences”
403.05 Pfahler et al., “From NITARP Experience to Community Practice”
406.04 Cullen et al., “Using Spitzer Space Telescope data to catalog short-term variable AGN for determining the size of accretion disks”

Alumni

104.08 Sperling et al., "Evaluating Educational Outcomes of the HERA Secondary–Higher Education High-Altitude Ballooning Research Program Across Pilot Sites"
136.08 Cohen & Sperling, "METEOR: A Low-Cost, APRS-Based Flight Computer for High-Altitude Balloon Missions"
217.04 Schwarz et al., “Star Finders: Assembling a Multi-Wavelength Catalog of Young Stellar Objects in Serpens Main”
403.02 Kuper et al., “From young stars to active galaxies: Development of foundational lessons for authentic astronomy research”
403.04 Newland et al., “Photometric Catalog Integration in a Python Framework for Spectral Energy Distribution Construction and Young Stellar Object Classification” - possibly better formatted version here
403.06 Bechtel, “NITARP Influences Multiple Generations, Communities, and Careers”
403.07 Blackwell et al., “Stellar Life Cycles: Improved Methods of Education”

Quotes

Honestly, I am not sure if it’s astronomers or just the ones that I have been lucky enough to meet through NITARP, but the field is so understanding and supportive of lay people jumping into the fray. No one has a superiority complex, and everyone is willing to slow down, re-explain, or provide simple analogies if it makes a concept easier to understand. I can say whole-heartedly I do not get the same support in the biological and chemical disciplines. The expectation is more along the lines of “I will work with you once you understand the basics to get to my level”.
[NITARP] positively changed the way I teach, see myself (as a researcher, mentor, and a teacher), and understand my students.
NITARP has definitely given me a new-found appreciation for actual data, all the nuances that come with it, and the skill of drawing conclusions from this data. That will be one of the most enduring benefits of my NITARP participation.
The reason that schools offer business, agriculture, engineering, etc. courses is to give students a sense of what that career is like. NITARP is one of the few opportunities that students get to experience what a *career* in science is like. For teachers, NITARP can showcase and teach the skills that are necessary for success in a scientific career and allow teachers to better educate their students on what that career path is like.
I am not the same teacher that I was before this experience; you have changed everything. Thanks to you, I just see everything differently now. I have been teaching some astronomy classes for years now, and after the NITARP experience, I realize that I have not been teaching astronomy at all. Sure, I covered the standards and my students passed the course, but there is so much more to astronomy, and my students need to be exposed to it. Thanks to you, I also got to access real data and work with it. I got to be a real astronomer! It was like you brought me along as a guest to your private club and I got to be an actual member by the end. My personal life, and teaching life, have been greatly enriched by being a part of NITARP.

AAS - 2026

Quotes

Related Teams