If they wanted to, Pat McShea and Sue McJunkin could put together really long resumes.

Ms. McJunkin, 55, of O'Hara, has taught science and social studies to pupils in Charleston, W.Va.; Alberta, Canada; Sterling Heights, Mich.; and Carmichaels.

Mr. McShea, 54, of Plum, has taught biology and earth science in schools in Long Island, N.Y.; Sandusky, Ohio; Amarillo, Texas; Mobile, Ala.; and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

And that's been in only the past four months.

Mr. McShea, program officer of Carnegie Museum of Natural History's distance learning initiative, and Ms. McJunkin, the project's program specialist, have not actually stepped foot in Texas, Alabama, Michigan or Canada recently.

But through the Internet and other video and sound technology, they have appeared on large television screens in elementary, junior high and high school classrooms in 23 states and Canada. They have presented programs on bats, groundhogs, owls, insects, bird nests, rocks, minerals, arctic life, the Iroquois, ancient Egypt and dinosaurs.

The distance learning program is interactive. Students can see and hear the teachers and teachers can hear and see the them. Questions can be answered instantaneously.

Carnegie Museum is one of about 160 institutions in the United States, Canada and a handful of other countries to offer video conference programs to school districts through the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration in Indianapolis.

Besides museums, the center can tap zoos, science centers, aviaries, medical centers, halls of fame, corporations, performing arts centers and other facilities with the capabilities to teach.

The center offers school districts with the technology to do video conferencing a choice of more than 1,000 subjects. Then the district will pick a museum, zoo, aviary or another kind of facility to present the program.

The center provides the district with a description of the program being offered, and reviews from other teachers who have used the program.

In 2008, Carnegie Museum made 250 presentations, charging districts $125 for each one-hour program. Dinosaurs were most in demand, followed by rocks and minerals, and arctic life.

This school year, Carnegie is one ofthe center's top-ranked facilities in positive reviews from school districts, according to Ruth Blankenbaker, 61, executive director and founder of the center.

"They've received all gold-star rankings for multiple programs," Ms. Blankenbaker said. "That's phenomenal. It's unusual.

Carnegie Museum has been involved in distance learning for six years. It is doing 10 times the number of presentations it did the first year. In November, the museum provided space for a new soundproof video conferencing studio with a lighting system that allows for multiple sets.

Brookline's Carmalt Academy, a pre-kindergarten to grade 8 science and technology magnet in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, has used Carnegie Museum's distance learning program during the past year. Schools in Washington, Greene and Fayette counties, as well as some districts in West Virginia, are receiving funding to use the programs through a grant from the Benedum Foundation.

Thirty-five of the 42 school districts in Allegheny County have been having video conferencing equipment installed during the past year. All are expected to be ready to go for the 2009-10 school year.

Mr. McShea and Ms. McJunkin figure they have plenty to teach students.

"With our different cameras, there are things I can show a classroom better than if I was actually there standing in front of them," said Mr. McShea. "For instance, a vampire bat's skull is very small, about as big as your fingernail. If I held it in my hand and tried to show students, it would be difficult to see.

"But with the use of our video cameras, we can blow it up to cover the entire television screen."

Mr. McShea, who has worked in the museum's education department for 23 years, and Ms. McJunkin, a former teacher in Churchill School District, now Woodland Hills, can provide many fascinating facts and figures about their subjects to stimulate interest.

With younger elementary students, Mr. McShea likes to employ "the-bait-and-switch" method of learning.

"I talk to them about silly little things about Groundhog Day," said Mr. McShea. "But then I pack it with scientific information.

"I talk about hibernation and about burrowing, about how one groundhog can tunnel 65 feet, about the benefits and the problems groundhogs bring for farmers."

Linden, N.J., 20 miles south of Newark, was one school district that used Carnegie Museum for a groundhog presentation.

"Through video conferencing, we get a chance to bring the world to the classroom without putting the students on buses," said Joe Catalino, the district's educational technology specialist.

Ms. McJunkin said one of her most memorable and rewarding moments as a distance learning instructor occurred while talking about dinosaurs to second-graders in the Calhoun County, W.Va.

Calhoun had just received its distance learning equipment through a grant, but administrators there were still wondering about the feasibility of the program, according to Ms. McJunkin.

"As I'm teaching the second-graders, I see on my screen the Calhoun superintendent, principal and director of curriculum walk into the back of the classroom," she said.

"And as they're observing my dinosaur presentation, all of a sudden a little boy raises his hand, stands up and asks me 'What do I have to do to become a paleontologist?'

"As I was answering him, I was thinking to myself, 'Young man, you may have just sold those administrators on the value of distance learning.' That little boy was already thinking about continuing his education."