Students at West Glacier Elementary School will explore the world over the next few months, without ever leaving their classrooms.

Better still, their guides along the way will be students from schools all over the globe.

Their journey is possible because of GigaPan, a robotic device that uses a standard digital camera to take a series of photos from slightly different angles. A software program then stitches the photos together to create a seamless, extremely high-resolution panorama.

The “giga” in the name refers to the billion-plus pixels in the photo that let viewers zoom in for sharp close-ups.

The technology will allow West Glacier students to shoot photos of their school and surrounding area and zoom in on items of particular importance to them, whether it’s their favorite book clearly visible in a close-up of a panorama of the library or a songbird invisible in a playground panorama but clear after zooming in on the shot.

Students will upload their photos to a secure Web site, where they can access similar photos from schools all over the world.

“It’s a neat way for us to share the geographic area we live in and give our kids” access to other cultures all over the world, West Glacier Principal Cortni King said.

The GigaPan technology originally was developed for NASA’s Mars explorations rovers, to allow scientists on Earth to see crisp details of the planet. Carnegie Mellon University, which created the robot, has since begun to expand its uses. GigaPan is available commercially and is being used in a UNESCO education program.

The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization set up several schools around the world with GigaPan robots. Students share their photos online and can ask students from other schools questions about their photos.

West Glacier is one of the first three schools outside the UNESCO project to receive the technology, King said. Her students will be able to view the UNESCO schools’ photos, but won’t be able to post questions or comments about the pictures.

They will, however, be able to exchange comments with students from schools outside the UNESCO GigaPan project, which means West Glacier kids will learn about life in the United Kingdom and Philadelphia, King said.

It will be a new way to expose the students to cultures and situations they may never otherwise experience, she added. By interacting with other students’ photos, West Glacier kids can explore countries in ways they couldn’t by reading a textbook or watching a DVD.

“There’s actually that dialogue. They’ll actually be able to ask questions. You can’t do that of a book,” King said.

“And the perspective they’re getting is a kid’s perspective. They will get to talk to somebody who lives and breathes that life.”

King hopes students will take their first photos in the next few weeks and then take more in May to show the contrast between winter and late spring in West Glacier. It will be eye-opening for students from urban areas, who might never experience classes with only 27 students, much less a school such as West Glacier with such a small enrollment.

It will be educational for everyone involved, said Lisa McKeon, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist.

“It’s going to broaden their horizons,” she said.

McKeon, whose daughter is a second-grader at West Glacier, introduced the school to the technology after attending a GigaPan workshop at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh in October.

She is using GigaPan to monitor climate change in Glacier National Park, and she was excited to learn there was an educational program that uses the technology.

“Part of their mission is sort of a cross-cultural exchange to bring people with different backgrounds together,” McKeon said. “It’s a great opportunity for these kids up here.”

The technology has practical applications, she added. Students will hone their writing skills by writing captions for their panoramas and descriptions of the area and of themselves. They will use critical thinking to determine what’s important in their photos and what they want to point out on the Web site.

“It’s not just kind of a ‘gee whiz’ tool,” McKeon said.

On the Web:

http://gigapan.org

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com