Constance E. Walker (NOAO), Malcolm G. Smith (AURA and NOAO),
Dara J. Norman (NSF AAPF, NOAO), Stephen M. Pompea (NOAO),
David Orellana (RedLaser/CTIO), and Elizabeth M. Alvarez del Castillo
(International Dark-Sky Association)

With respect to light pollution, environmental action depends on enforcement,
but education is an essential prior ingredient to successful enforcement.

NOAO has launched innovative efforts to realize light pollution education on
two continents. These efforts are aided by Internet 2-based videoconferencing
between NOAO North and South. NOAO has co-sponsored two “proof-of-
concept” teacher professional development videoconference workshops (in
October 2002 and February 2003) linking teachers in Tucson, AZ, and La
Serena, Chile. The teachers exchanged methods and ideas about how to explain
and demonstrate the nature of light and color to students of various ages.  The
workshops were conducted in Spanish with four bilingual science teachers from
the Tucson area discussing pedagogical approaches with their teaching
counterparts in Chile.  The workshops included demonstrations, project
presentations, and the construction and calibration of spectroscopes.  The
Chilean teachers used these spectroscopes to examine a number of light sources
in their town and presented their findings at the second workshop.

These workshops have developed into cross-continent planning for larger light
pollution education efforts to be led by teachers. These efforts dovetail with
previous light pollution efforts in Austria and Greece. North and south-based
programs are designed to take advantage of successful efforts in the United
States such as Project ASTRO, and efforts in Chile, like REDLASER, by
merging the strategies and techniques from each into a cross-cultural exchange.

This talk examines the history of the collaboration and the synergy of the
different approaches based on the Chilean and American educational systems.