It's a favorite among tourists and sports fans: the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown. And these days, it's a source of education. Vince Gallagher reports.

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The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown is a popular destination, and a source of education. One way is through point to point video conferences.

"We do up to 500 video conferences a year and the video conferences are live sessions where we bring education into the classroom," said Anna Wade, Director of Museum Education.

Just like this particular one with an eighth grade class from Derby, Vermont.

"Here's the Hall of Fame itself, that's what we're best known for...this is a shot of our plaque gallery," explained museum teacher Caitlin Hier.

Even the artifacts process is explained.

“It comes from the game, we take it back to Cooperstown...it is weighed and assessed, there's a number put on it so we can find it in our records," said Hier.

This video conference field trip series does more than just explain the game of baseball. In fact, it can help students understand concepts behind math, science and in today's example, civil rights.

"That session will last about an hour and the teacher that we have here from the Hall of Fame will go over the African American experience in baseball from the 1800s all the way through present day," said Wade.

With an emphasis on one famous player...

"You can see behind me we have a shot of Jackie Robinson and you can see an artifact case right down there,” said Hier.

For schools to participate, they would need a video conference system, and then they can sign up on the Hall of Fame's website. Teachers can even partake in a little fielder's choice, picking the topics for their students.

"So they can select math or science or civil rights, women's history, labor history, economics, whatever program what they would like and then we'll tailor the program to the student's need," said Wade.

There's also an onsite program known as the Diamond Discovery Days available for both school and home school students.

"They're available for kindergarten through 12th grade students and they'll take place for students on site...teachers and students can experience all the different modules that we have,” said Wade.

A lesson both on and off the field.