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AAS January 2012
Special
article on AAS attendees!
Round 6 - Class of 2012
Selected quotes from participants:
- I had an amazing, exhausting time at the AAS meeting.
- I didn't anticipate meeting engineers and graphic artists.
- My general impression is how big and varied the whole conference
was. I knew the number coming in - but sometimes our imagination fails
us. To see all the posters, papers, booths, and talks was truly
astonishing.
- I was somewhat
intimated at the prospect of working with Caltech scientists however I
found my first experience one that eased all my trepidations and
instilled excitement for the work I will be doing.
- I was surprised at the number of young people[...] I am used to
seeing older people as astronomers.
- I think that the most surprising thing about it was how young
everyone was! I absolutely did not expect that, maybe because the
amateur community is so much older by comparison, and is mainly
composed of retired people.
- I was bombarded with a lot of information in a short period of
time. I had no idea there was so much research going on in
Astronomy. Astronomers are very eager to explain their research and
future goals. A very friendly bunch.
- I'm happy to say that at my third AAS, I am developing the ability
to absorb more information and have a greater understanding of the
work that is presented.
- I found myself continually challenged by the intellectual level and knowledge being shared.
- I did not anticipate how exhausted I'd get.
- Astronomers are a remarkably collaborative lot. I knew this, but I was
amazed by how friendly everyone was.
- I learned so much
about the many different telescopes, enjoyed the historical
presentations, and found the exposure to the more specific research to
be beneficial, even if I didn't understand that much about the
research itself.
- I didn't realize that there is so much work still to be done on mapping the Milky Way.
- I assumed that [this project] would require a great
deal of data analysis, what I didn't grasp until after this meeting was how focused and
detailed the analysis would be. The steps in understanding that are gained through the
analysis are much smaller than I anticipated they would be for the amount of work
that is done.
- I did not anticipate being so challenged in the NITARP research.
- The invited talk especially made me think a little harder about
the assumptions we make when we describe our very own galaxy - we have
not seen it! This comes up in class every year, and this talk gave me
a better perspective when dealing with misconceptions students may
have.
- When asked about their future plans, I heard each student
describe their college hopes and their plans seemed bigger and more
full of promise than I had heard in the past. I believe having the
attention of such a distinguished audience raised their
expectations of themselves.
Round 5 - Class of 2011
Bright Rimmed Clouds (BRC) Team
The BRC team's educators plus 11 students attended. One of our team's
IPAC staff members also attended, M. Legassie. The scientist mentor
was Luisa Rebull.
Core teachers:
John Gibbs,
Chelen Johnson (mentor teacher),
Marcella Linahan,
Diane Sartore.
Posters:
science poster (pdf),
education poster (pdf).
Photos (click for higher resolution version):
 The
team in front of the Spitzer lightbox at the Spitzer booth.
Selected quotes from participants:
- The most interesting thing I learned is that astronomy is such a
huge field. There is so many things that you can research about. Also
something interesting is that whatever you find in your research
astronomers want to know about it.
- 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.
- This experience has furthered my
interest in the field and I hope to continue learning about astronomy.
- [...]Astronomers all have different career paths and can do multiple
different things with their work.
- This was a great experience to delve into real data, and
have hands on experience in REAL research.
- The number one thing that the new people should know is that this
experience is one of the best they will every have. You are meeting
with people who share similar goals that is to learn and discover new
things.
- [During this session,] I also saw the tensions between astronomers.
During the Q/A part of each speaker's [time], someone from the
audience would give some counterpoint to the examples given in the
talk or would give information contradictory to what was presented.
This showed me that this science is new and that the "correct" method
does not exist.
- [Even as a student,] I was surprised how many people I now know after 2 AAS
[meetings].
- Attending the AAS meeting was one of the greatest things I have
ever done. The information that I picked up from the meeting was
immense and I would do further astronomical research so that I may
attend this conference again.
- While working on our [project] it didn't seem as
though we were part of a larger connection, but after coming here it
feels like a group effort.
- Astronomers are the last of the great explorers.
- Astronomy has gone from just stargazing to a rigorous and
rewarding field of work in my eyes; before this program I clearly had
a misconception of what astronomers did at work.
- We put so much time and effort into this project, and it was very
rewarding to see the finished poster at the convention with all of the
graduate students and scientists. Being able to present our work to
these people and understand what I was talking about was my favorite
part of the convention. It was satisfying to see how much we impressed
all of these professionals when we are only in high school.
- During this meeting, I really got to see
science up close. Everyone here was on the [outer edges] of astronomy,
carving the path for humans in space. I saw how science was conducted
and because I took part in this conference and contributed to the new
information gathered, I feel like I am a part of something more.
- At this year's AAS conference I was even able to get a grasp of
what the speaker was discussing in most lectures I attended
- Overall, this experience has been very gratifying and I have
learned more about astronomy than I ever thought I would.
- Astronomers are for the most part highly optimistic people by
nature though.
- Astronomers dream about above and beyond. They laugh when someone
says impossible. When other people say impossible, astronomers say
just give me a couple years, a large computer, and some duct tape and
and I'll have a working model.
- Although I knew that it would be a bunch of posters at the
convention, I was surprised at how many talks there were on a variety
of topics. It was nice to be able to spend my time listening to
lectures of my choosing and being able to view the projects.
- 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.
Astronomers may be very intelligent, but since most of them had
probably envisioned an audience that was at or above their level, it
was hard for me to understand some of the oral sessions.
- Presenting our findings was very confidence boosting actually, as
I found I was able to answer almost every question I was asked. It was
also very exciting and unique.
- The most interesting part of the trip for me was seeing the
numerous amounts of presentations and posters that all required so
much work for this one week.
- What surprised me the most was the great sense of pride I felt
when I listened to my students work with the other students in the BRC
team. They completed each other's sentences. They interceded when
others faltered. Wow. What a fabulously cooperative group.
- [student] After being in this program, I would love to encourage astronomy
and science to young people, such as in schools. Therefore, maybe we
can work with another organization so that we can talk with the kids
and promote STEM careers
- Of all the professional development programs in which I have been
involved, NITARP continues to rank among the top few. The opportunity
to work with a world-class astronomer and alongside teachers and
students across the country on a real research project is amazing!
Watching the project evolve from a seed of an idea in January into a
two professional posters presented at the AAS the following January is
fulfilling and satisfying. To think that eighteen people can work
together over twelve months and thousands of miles is a true
reflection of what authentic research is all about.
Period Pontificators
The PP team's educators plus 3 students attended. The scientist
mentors were Steve Howell and David Ciardi.
Core teachers:
John Blackwell (mentor teacher),
Stacy DeVeau,
Debbie Edwards
Posters:
science poster (pdf),
education poster (pdf)
Photos (click any for higher resolution version):
Selected quotes from participants:
- Science is hard! ;-) Also, it is worth the work!
- I recognized several faces from AAS
last year, which gave me an appreciation for the networking
opportunities that such conferences provide astronomers.
- 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.
- It was amazing being, not just an attendee of the conference, but
a real part of it through the poster presentations. Thank you for this
invaluable opportunity and insight into how real science is conducted
and shared by the scientific community. Astronomy, as is any branch of
science, is such a diverse field with many discoveries yet to be made.
It was truly an honor to be a part of the NITARP program.
- I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to participate in the
NITARP program for the past year. I gained experience that I never
thought I would be capable of, gained many new resources, and learned
more that I ever expected. It has been a very unique and productive
experience and I am proud of both the scientific research we
accomplished and the educational aspects that were brought to our
school systems.
- One thing I did not like though was a lot of the sessions [were
scheduled] at the same time and there a lot of them I wanted to go to;
however, I could not visit all of them.
- When I was visiting different posters and listening to them talk
about their work, I realized how much of astronomy is guessing. When
setting up an experiment, each person has expect results, but it is
unknown information and anything could happen. In one of the posters I
was listening to, the scientist did his project and had a set of
results he was expecting. However, after the project, the result was
right but the distance was much closer than expected. Therefore, he
had more questions and new experiments to test to get more answers.
- This experience convinced me even further that I
can push myself to learn even more each and every day. I started out
feeling very overwhelmed and unprepared last year. I forced myself to
work through my unease and wound up much more comfortable. I learned
that astronomers are much more down-to-earth than I envisioned a lot
of them to be and so many of them are very willing to go out of their
way to explain things when we have questions.
- I found everything exciting!
Team Red Shift
TRS's team educators attended, along with 6 students.
The scientist mentor was Varoujan Gorjian.
Core teachers:
Merrill Butler,
Adam Keeton,
Shefali Mehta,
Tim Spuck (mentor teacher).
Posters: science poster
(pdf), education poster
(pdf)
Photos (click for higher resolution version):
Selected quotes from participants:
- This year was great! I really felt comfortable making my way
around to discuss not only what I teach, but also what my research was
about.
- To see and experience how the
process of a research project such as this goes through was an
interesting and amazing experience.
- I did not anticipate the amount of people that were not NITARP but
instead simply "fellow" astronomers and researchers that came by our
team's poster to discuss our findings. That for me was unanticipated
but instead was a most leasant surprise.[..] It was truly surprising
yet very exhilirating as I answered questions and then asked them
about their research and how they tackled certain problems.
- I didn't anticipate the number of very interesting and truly remarkable
people that I would get to meet which was a welcome surprise.
- 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 scietific research with so
many people from many different facilities was extremely rejuvinating
as an educator. This year was so much different than last year
having a poster to share with others!
- After two days of being totally overwhelmed by all the high level
science going on around me, it was a relief and simply awesome to
see that these professional astronomers were also somewhat clueless
about my own research. This was such an amazing capstone to the
NITARP experience, actually feeling I was on nearly the same level
as everyone else presenting.
- What I am in awe
about is that this relatively small community of scientists,
engineers, programmers, and educators has developed and built this
incredible astronomical research infrastructure.
- This has been a remarkable experience in which I have learned so much and
I am so grateful for.
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