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

After this experience, I have come to realize that I have never really taught Astronomy to my students. Yes, they all learned the standards and they passed the course, but they have not learned Astronomy.
My time in NITARP has fundamentally changed my approach to teaching in the classroom and use of more realistic science practices in my learning activities. Each time I lean more, gain more skills, learn from others, and improve my craft to the benefit of my students.
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!
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”.
This program has been one of the toughest and yet most rewarding projects I have been involved with, and I love how we were able to involve students!

AAS - 2026

Quotes

Related Teams