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AAS - 2012

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 2011 and 2012 NITARP teams attended the 2012 January AAS meeting in Austin, TX. The 2011 class was presenting results and the 2012 class was starting up. We sent about 60 people to the AAS (the largest delegation to date) and had a grand time. Please see the special article on NITARP at the AAS. We also got a smattering of coverage in local media outlets.

Quotes

  • The experience I had at the 2012 AAS meeting as well as the entire NITARP experience will change the way I teach astronomy. Having spent 5 days meeting and discussing authentic scientific research with so many people from many different facilities was extremely rejuvenating as an educator. This year was so much different than last year having a poster to share with others!
  • [student:] I came to appreciate the fact that there will always be someone smarter than I am, and that's okay because I can learn from them. I also came to appreciate the ability of good public speaking.
  • Although some of the information was beyond my comprehension at the current time, I learned a lot and was able to relate to a lot of the topics.
  • Astronomers all have different career paths and can do multiple different things with their work.
  • One of the things that I did not anticipate was being so PROUD of our work. I was convinced I would be nervous and unsure of myself as people I envisioned as being more important than myself grilled me with questions. I was pleased to find that nearly everyone who stopped by our posters was inquisitive, supportive and seemed genuinely interested. I also surprised myself with how comfortable I became with talking to these people as they came by and asked their questions.

Related Teams

AAS - 2012