WAILUKU >> Two Maui teachers are part of a program that will allow them to conduct astronomy research with their students. 

Christopher Border of Maui Preparatory Academy and Kathryn O’Connor of Lokelani Intermediate School are among 12 teachers across the country chosen for the NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program.

Border told The Maui News his group will use archived data from the space-based Planck telescope. Teachers and students will use the data to search for infrared sources outside our galaxy.

O’Connor says the work won’t involve looking through a telescope but using numerical data and equations to figure out what the numbers mean and what objects are.

The 8th grade teacher says she intends use the program to show students how math is important.