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

Time with like minded and active teachers bring more ideas and opportunities than can ever be completed by a person - but will absolutely transform my teaching (again!). Every time is something new and amazing and makes me a better teacher and educational leader.
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.
Learning through application made this experience clear, relevant, and effective for solving our research challenges... which means that I now have a sufficient understanding of how the software works so that I could integrate it into future work with my students. Closing this loop from a professional development/learning experience back to impacting meaningfully and inspirationally is very seldom accomplished, yet NITARP does it routinely and effectively. It makes NITARP such an impactful program... its outcomes propagate through me to my students, my colleagues, and ultimately into those that choose to join the family of NASA and other professionals choosing astronomy and space exploration as their careers. NITARP has the best cost/benefit ratio of any professional development experience I have ever had... so much impact rippling out into the future!
I have come to realize that data is the key to science. Scientists make claims and these claims have to be backed up by research. I want my students to be scientists and do the things that scientists actually do. This program has only strengthened these convictions.
I am always so thankful for the applied lessons that are learned through the NITARP experience as they are golden elements for building a meaningful and impactful classroom for my students. Experiencing the process of the professional scientist pops up in the classroom ALL THE TIME as a part of the story inherent to a lesson, unit or course of instruction. It allows me to bring in a strong, realistic perspective on the human element of being a scientist to how I teach my students.

AAS - 2026

Quotes

Related Teams