{"id":236387,"date":"2026-06-22T11:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=236387"},"modified":"2026-06-22T11:00:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:00:52","slug":"teachers-train-with-astronomers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2026\/06\/22\/teachers-train-with-astronomers\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawaiʻi teachers train with 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> astronomers, explore Maunakea"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Group
Participating teachers visited observatories on the summit of Maunakea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Person
IfA<\/abbr> graduate student Sage Constantinou leads a presentation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> Institute for Astronomy<\/a> (IfA<\/abbr>)\u2019s annual TeachAstro program brought 16 STEM<\/abbr> teachers to Hilo for a week of hands-on learning, collaboration and discovery. TeachAstro is designed to share astronomy with Hawaiʻi<\/span>\u2019s grade 6–12 classrooms and to foster a community of practice in astronomy education throughout the state.<\/p>\n

The third year of this summer professional development program hosted a cohort of 12 teachers from Hawaiʻi<\/span> Island and four from Oʻahu<\/span>. Throughout the week, participants worked alongside IfA<\/abbr> faculty to learn about state-of-the-art astronomy data and tools and then collaborated to develop classroom lessons to bring astronomy concepts back to their students. The program concluded with educators presenting their newly created lesson plans.<\/p>\n

\"People
Participants worked to develop astronomy-based classroom activities<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“TeachAstro is about giving teachers authentic experiences in astronomy and helping them transform those experiences into engaging lessons for their students,” said IfA<\/abbr> faculty member and TeachAstro director Michael Liu. “When our teachers are excited and inspired, that enthusiasm reaches thousands of students across the state.”<\/p>\n

Astronomy up close<\/h3>\n

Participants also took a daytime excursion to the summit of Maunakea and visited several world-class observatories including 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr>\u2019s 88-inch telescope<\/a>, the NASA<\/abbr> Infrared Telescope Facility<\/a>, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope<\/a>, and W. M. Keck Observatory<\/a>. Alumni from previous TeachAstro programs also attended.<\/p>\n

\"Group
Staff from observatories on Maunakea hosted a talk story session<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New additions to TeachAstro this year included an in-person Shadow the Scientists<\/a> session at Gemini Observatory<\/a> to witness nighttime observing in action, as well as an evening talk-story session at the ʻImiloa<\/span> Astronomy Center<\/a> at 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Hilo that focused on Maunakea, led by members from the Mauna Kea Stewardship and Oversight Authority.<\/p>\n

The program was led by 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> faculty members Michael Liu, Jennifer van Saders, David Jones and Mike Nassir, along with science teacher Stephanie Pickett of Kealakehe High School. It was supported by partnerships with ʻImiloa<\/span> and Keck Observatory, and funding was provided by the Heising-Simons Foundation.<\/p>\n

\"People
Participants present classroom lessons inspired by their TeachAstro experience<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Teachers play a critical role in inspiring the next generation of scientists and explorers,” said IfA<\/abbr> Director Doug Simons. “Programs like TeachAstro help build those connections and expand opportunities for students throughout Hawaiʻi<\/span>.”<\/p>\n

The next TeachAstro program is planned for summer 2027 on Oʻahu<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Institute for Astronomy\u2019s annual TeachAstro program brought STEM<\/abbr> teachers to Hilo for hands-on astronomy training.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":236402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[34,292,35,659,1421,14,9],"class_list":["post-236387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-astronomy","tag-imiloa-astronomy-center","tag-institute-for-astronomy","tag-maunakea","tag-maunakea-observatories","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Hilo-teachers-Maunakea.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236387"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236422,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236387\/revisions\/236422"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}