Before coming to West Virginia, I worked for Delaware-Chenango BOCES as their telelearning coordinator. BOCES stands for “Board of Cooperative Educational Services.” Such organizations exist throughout New York State for the purpose of pooling resources of school systems and providing services and equipment they might be unable to afford on their own. Examples of the services they provide include distance learning, vocational education, computer services, etc. Our BOCES owned a portable Starlab planetarium for loan to member school districts.

Carol Kwiencinski, from Downsville Central School in Downsville, New York, used the portable planetarium with her students. Her students asked her many questions she could not answer, particularly about black holes. As an add-on to her planetarium session, she approached me to do a teleconference with a planetarium director, Mitch Luman of the Koch Planetarium and Science Center, Evansville, Indiana. To set up the conference, we used a speakerphone, which is basically a set of amplifiers and microphones that allow students to speak and listen to a telephone conversation as a group.