20 years of high school teachers and students doing astronomy research at IPAC

“NITARP changed my life,” said Thomas Rutherford, a teacher at Sullivan South High School in Kingsport, Tennessee.

Written by Isabel Swafford 

The NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP) is celebrating 20 years of high school teachers and students doing astronomy research at IPAC. 

This incredible milestone represents the years of dedication from those who run the program, NITARP Director Luisa Rebull and Deputy Director Varoujan Gorjian, and also serves as a testament to the far-reaching impact this innovative research program has had on both teachers and students across the country. 

NITARP, first known from 2005 to 2009 as the Spitzer Space Telescope Research Program for Teachers and Students, has been partnering with high school teachers and their students to conduct authentic astronomy research with professional-level data for the last 20 years. 

“It is so cool that I get to work with these amazing teachers, and it’s kind of mind-boggling that I have been able to do so for 20 years!” said Rebull. “They’re all such motivated, special people, and I love getting to do astronomy research with them.”

Real Research

The teams are made up of teachers, students, and astronomers carrying out a year-long research project using the data and analysis tools available at IRSA, the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive. From writing a proposal to combing through datasets, to collaborating with each other to presenting at an American Astronomical Society (AAS) conference—NITARP participants get to experience the full spectrum of what it means to actually do science. 

“It’s interesting that sometimes when you ask a question, the answer might be that within the field of astronomy, we just don't know. That’s an answer you won't find in school or anywhere else. That’s cool,” said a NITARP student in 2025.

“This experience has greatly changed the way I thought about astronomy. It made me realize just how much work really goes into all of the things you see. [NITARP] helped me get an idea of what it really means to be an astronomer; it's not just sitting at a telescope taking beautiful pictures,” said a NITARP student in 2012. 

NITARP applicants come from all over the country, and since 2012, the program has received four times as many applicants as available spots each year, typically six to eight teachers per year. 

“The way we teach science in the U.S. has been changing in the last several years. We are asking science teachers to teach science and scientific thinking in ways that they themselves were not taught. Data literacy is a critical skill students need, but teachers haven’t been taught this either,” said Rebull. “NITARP fills this need, and that’s why I think so many teachers apply to work with us.” 

Diving in

Participants begin the program by attending an introductory workshop and then diving into a winter AAS conference—the largest meeting of professional astronomers in the world. At the AAS, the NITARP group attends talks and poster presentations to not only learn about cutting-edge astronomy research, but to also learn how science conferences work so that they can prepare to present their work at the next winter AAS meeting just one year later. 

“The most interesting thing was getting to present to a variety of different people at the AAS and to meet so many folks,” said a NITARP participant in 2024. “I felt like an expert because I was an expert at that point.”

An intentional effect of bringing in new NITARP groups at the same time as the previous ones are doing their culminating presentations at the AAS is to network and foster mentorship between NITARP participants. 

“I'm also here with other educators, rubbing shoulders with them, seeing how they teach things, how they frame things, what their mindset is. I keep opening my syllabus for the fall and adding things to it based on whatever we talked about here,” said Lauren Albin, a teacher and planetarium director at Young Harris College in Young Harris, Georgia, and NITARP participant in the 2025 class. 

“I find this to be an inspiring group of people, and they make me a better teacher,” said Laura Orr, a teacher at Ukiah High School in Ukiah, Oregon. “Every time I have a conversation with anyone in this group, I come away much more energized for what I do, what I can do, and what could come next.” In the years following her participation in NITARP, Orr became the superintendent for her school district and is now bringing research- and inquiry-based teaching methods to educators across the district—a story not uncommon for NITARP alumni. 

In the months following the winter AAS meeting, NITARP groups work remotely on their research projects via video calls and emails. As the “A” in NITARP says, the teams dive into the multiple data archives hosted at IPAC, including IRSA, NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), and the NASA Exoplanet Archive. They also connect with Caltech and NASA scientists to ask questions and collaborate on research ideas and methods. 

Teacher as student, and student as teacher

Another unique aspect of NITARP is that it places the teachers and students at the same level, doing their research as peers rather than one being taught by the other—and many teachers end up learning from their students. 

“It changes how you approach teaching. Being surrounded by people, whether they're older or younger, who are asking these awesome questions, it’s liberating,” said Benjamin Senson, an educator at James Madison Memorial High School, Madison College and Madison Metropolitan School District Planetarium in Madison, Wisconsin, and NITARP mentor educator in the 2025 class. 

“I feel like we're learning from each other, and there's no hierarchy. I can ask you a question and you can ask me, and it's fun that we're learning from the same level,” said a NITARP student in 2025. 

As Rebull and Gorjian reiterate often, NITARP is not intended to create future astronomy researchers, instead, the program focuses on teaching research skills that could be applied anywhere. 

“I haven't had a student that I brought through the program, or through any of my lessons, that hasn't benefited in some way or isn't using some of those skills that we've learned [at NITARP],” said Orr. 

Ripple Effects 

But NITARP isn’t only focused on exposing students to real scientific research methods, in fact, the “T” in NITARP—teachers—is quite literally at the heart of the program. 

“We work with teachers because of the leverage they bring,” said Rebull. “Change the way a student thinks about science, astronomy, astronomers, that's great. But change the way a teacher thinks, and you impact all the students they teach for the rest of their career. Based on teachers’ inputs, we estimate an average of about 900 people reached per NITARP educator per year, or more than 100,000 people per year over the entire alumni pool.”

“NITARP also gave me a lot of confidence to explore other projects and other ways to do professional development [after the program],” said Jeff Benter, a teacher at Tri-Valley High School in Downs, Illinois, and NITARP mentor educator in the 2025 class. 

“After [my first] summer visit, I went back to school and changed everything. It completely transformed the way that I taught in the classroom on a regular basis. Everything became much more open ended and inquiry based,” said Olivia Kuper, who has taught in rural schools across Texas and Tennessee. Kuper also began a research group for students before and after school, on topics of their choosing. This group was the first of its kind at every school she brought the idea to, and led to many science fair and other competition wins for her students. 

Alumni of the program are so passionate about NITARP that many of them return year after year to continue work, completely self-funded, to grow both their skills and networks. 

“NITARP restores my soul every summer,” said Vincent Urbanowski, a teacher at the Academy of Information Technology & Engineering in Stamford, Connecticut. “Every time I come back from NITARP, I end up teaching something differently, with a new perspective. And then a year later I find out that my school district is catching up. So NITARP puts me two years ahead of everybody else in my neighborhood.” 

Two teachers in the 2018 NITARP class, David Friedlander-Holm, a teacher at The Bay School of San Francisco, in San Francisco, California, and Alissa Sperling, a teacher at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, started their own research project called HERA (High-Altitude Engineering for Research in Astrophysics). The team pairs local high schools and universities together to launch scientific research balloons into the atmosphere to study cosmic rays. Their collaborations span the U.S. and Australia.

“The idea for this partnership is based on our NITARP experiences,” said Friedlander-Holm. “NITARP has been the kick to really get my school's research program going. Students know what's possible and insist that I offer them more research opportunities.”

In its 20 years of operation, NITARP has opened the doors for countless students and educators to experience real scientific research, and it has left a lasting impact on its community of alumni. 

“Every science teacher should get to go through a program like this,” said Kevin Molohon, a teacher at Champlin Park High School in Champlin, Minnesota, and NITARP participant in the 2025 class. 

Quotes from NITARP students have been anonymized for their privacy. More quotes from NITARP teachers and students can be found here. 

More about NITARP:

IPAC at Caltech is a science and data center for astrophysics and planetary sciences. The NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP) receives funding from the NASA Astrophysics Data Analysis Program and would particularly like to thank Douglas Hudgins and Joshua Pepper for their support.