COURTESY OF GEMINI OBSERVATORY
Three Hilo-area "Star Teachers" selected by Gemini Observatory for a teacher exchange program with Chile stand with Gemini staff members Janice Harvey, far left, and Peter Michaud, far right. The teachers between them are Kristen Luning, left, Alicia Hui and Christine Copes.
3 Chilean ‘Star
Teachers’ visit Hilo
HILO >> Children in La Serena, Chile, can look at the night sky and see the Southern Cross, just as children in Hilo can, despite being separated by 6,000 miles and seven times zones.
That was one of the lessons taught by three Gemini Observatory "Star Teachers" from La Serena visiting Hilo during the past two weeks.
Sponsored by the twin Gemini observatories on Mauna Kea and Cerro Pachon, Chile, the elementary school teachers used Gemini's videoconferencing facilities in Hilo to teach their students back in Chile.
The students of three Big Island Star Teachers were also able to talk to the Chilean students, using a translator and the videoconferencing equipment, said Gemini spokesman Peter Michaud.
The Chilean teachers -- Carmen Luz Briones, Viviana Calderon and Jenny Opazo -- fly home tomorrow. Their visit mirrored the trip of Big Island teachers Christine Copes, Alicia Hui and Kristen Luning to La Serena in March.
The Gemini observatories plan to hold such exchanges every other year, Michaud said.
The importance of the teacher exchange to the Chilean government was indicated by its awarding to Gemini director Matt Mountain Chile's Gabriela Mistral award for creating the exchange program.
Named for the Chilean poet who won the 1945 Nobel Prize for literature, this was the first time the prize had been awarded outside Chile, a Gemini statement said.
