April 2011
Ms. Meredith writes:
I have been doing some informal talks to astronomical groups, local
teacher in-service days, and the
teacher groups at Yerkes about the information in our project. I
put together a video presentation for the iCollaboratory symposium.
January 2011
Ms. Meredith presented the results of her 2010 team's work at the
Seattle AAS in January 2011. Here is the team's science poster and education poster.Please see
the AAS 2011 page for a
summary of this team's activities.
She writes:
EVERYTHING had a different flavor this year. ... I experienced
everything through the lens of the research project of the past year.
... I was far more focused on the "what ifs" and "what next" of the
process. ... When I look at how the intellectual process changed
over the last year I imagine it going from a diffuse look at research
and the entire conference experience to the extreme focus on our own
project during the year and finally reaching outward again in Seattle
to incorporate new information and understandings. Returning to AAS
made the experience complete.
...the most interesting thing I noticed this year was that I spent
much more time seeking out, listening to and talking about science
than I did about education itself. ...I felt much less out of
place.
Being there with my students was the most amazingly cool experience.
I saw my two guys explode in their willingness to ask questions and
express an opinion. ... They were enthusiastic and energetic about
the science. I was totally amazed by how their attendance made them
reflective about the year and enthusiastic about science. ... They
were amazed to hear other scientists say "Well, I understood half of
that talk," and they repeatedly heard astronomers make jokes about
research itself - the not knowing, the knowing and then getting
proven wrong, etc. The experience made a huge impression on them and
that was food for my soul.
July 2010
Ms. Meredith visited IPAC in July 2010 with her students.
Please see the Summer 2010 visits page.
February 2010
Kate got some media coverage
associated with her participation in NITARP!
January 2010
Ms. Meredith is a new NITARP teacher this year, and has just started
with her team. She is excited about getting kids and teachers from the
greater LaCrosse Area involved in the program.
She really enjoyed the AAS meeting. She writes:
This meeting was a reminder to me that I am an educator at heart. I
felt at home at the education sessions, and found most of them very
interesting. It was particularly valuable to hear about a variety of
evaluation methods and find out that standards for effective
evaluation had changed significantly over the years. I really enjoyed
it when a session room was empty following a set of presentations
giving ample opportunity to listen to other questions and ask some of
my own.
She also has these sage words of advice for attending AAS meetings:
- Astronomy timeline applies to the AAS meeting
as well as to astronomy research projects -- everything takes 8 times
as long as your best estimate plus 20 min. Plan on bumping into
people and starting up compelling conversations continually.
- Make a
decision prior to the meeting about what you most want to come away
with. Highlight the talks that are must-dos so you don't get side
tracked by every good conversation. I also found that although I got
a very good understanding about how this meeting operates, it was like
snacking on ideas and never really getting filled up or complete on
any one thing.
- Don't try to go to dinner with more than 5 people. It takes too
much time to coordinate.
Jeff Adkins
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John Blackwell
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Jacqueline Barge
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Christopher Border
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Kareen Borders
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Robert Bonadurer
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Merrill Butler
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Lauren Chapple
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Joseph Childers
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Howard Chun
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Wendy Curtis
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Richard DeCoster
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Stacy DeVeau
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Harlan Devore
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Cris DeWolf
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Velvet Dowdy
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Thomas Doyle
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Dean Drumheller
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Debbie Edwards
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Mike Ford
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Debbie French
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John Gibbs
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Peter Guastella
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Rosa Hemphill
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Ardis Herrold
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Vivian Hoette
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Chelen Johnson
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Virginia Jones
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Adam Keeton
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Susan Kelly
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Marcella Linahan
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Thomas Loughran
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Carolyn Mallory
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Anthony Maranto
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Christoper Martin
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Kevin McCarron
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Matthew McCutcheon
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David McDonald
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Shefali Mehta
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Cindy Melton
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Kate Meredith
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Lauren Novatne
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Kathryn O'Connor
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Caroline Odden
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Jeffrey Paradis
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Vincent Pereira
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Helen Petach
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Peggy Piper
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Peter Pitman
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Elizabeth Ramseyer
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Steve Rapp
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Theresa Roelofsen Moody
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Denise Rothrock
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Diane Sartore
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John Schaefers
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Sally Seebode
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Babs Sepulveda
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Timothy Spuck
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Darryl Stanford
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Linda Stefaniak
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Dwight Taylor
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Jennifer Tetler
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Beth Thomas
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Cynthia Weehler
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Lynne Zielinski
