Media representatives are invited to experience hands-on science aboard Destiny and Discovery, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s two traveling science laboratories, when they visit Gray’s Creek High School, Scotland County High School, East Bladen High School, Purnell Swett High School, St. Pauls High School and Red Springs High School next week.
Tuesday (Feb. 5)
10:05 a.m. to 11:40 a.m.
Gray’s Creek High School
5301 Celebration Drive, Hope Mills
Students from one of LeAndra Barriage’s anatomy and physiology classes will perform a lab exercise called “Weigh to Go!” Students will explore the connections between obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Using hydrophobic interactive chromatography, a key process in biotechnology research, students will purify a genetically engineered designer protein (simulated modified leptin) from transformed bacterial cells.
Tuesday (Feb. 5)
11:43 a.m. to 1:13 p.m.
Scotland High School of Visual and Performing Arts
1000 West Church St., Laurinburg
Students from one of Kathy Williams’ classes will perform a lab exercise called ‘The Crucial Concentration.” Students will assume the role of laboratory investigators for a court case to determine the amount of protein found in three sports drinks. Using the general concept of the Lowry assay and microanalysis skills, students will learn how to use a spectrophotometer, measure absorbencies, collect quantitative data and produce a standard curve to find the protein content in each sample.
Wednesday (Feb. 6)
8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
11:50 a.m. to 1:20 p.m.
East Bladen High School
5600 N.C. Hwy 87 East, Elizabethtown
Students from two of Stephanie Hester’s biology classes will perform a lab exercise called “Get a Clue.” They will assume the role of forensic scientists and perform DNA restriction analysis (popularly known as DNA fingerprinting) to analyze drops of “blood” and other kinds of evidence found at crime scenes as they determine which suspects are guilty or innocent.
Wednesday (Feb. 6)
1:39 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Purnell Swett High School
11344 Deep Branch Road, Pembroke
Students from one of Sue Patterson’s allied health I classes will perform a lab exercise called “Get a Clue,” described above.
Thursday (Feb. 7)
1:43 p.m. to 3:13 p.m.
St. Pauls High School
648 Old Stage Road, St. Pauls
Students from one of Mary McLean-Smith’s advanced placement biology classes will perform “Get a Clue,” described above.
Thursday (Feb. 7)
8 a.m. to 9:40 a.m.
11:55 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Red Springs High School
509 North Vance St., Red Springs
Students from two of Erin Oxendine’s biology classes will perform a lab exercise called “From Finches to Fishes.” They will learn the fundamental principles of evolution and natural selection. Protein gel electrophoresis will be used to acquire molecular data with which the students will construct an evolutionary tree for five fish species. The students will examine proteomics as the new frontier of molecular biology and its importance to understanding the structure and function of the human genome and the genomes of other organisms.
The Destiny traveling science learning program is a science education outreach initiative of Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at UNC-Chapel Hill that serves pre-college teachers and students across North Carolina. Destiny develops and delivers a standards-based, hands-on curriculum and teacher professional development with a team of educators and a fleet of vehicles that travel throughout the state.
Destiny and Discovery, two custom-built, 40-foot, 33,000-pound buses, bring the latest science and technology equipment to students who otherwise would not see a high-tech laboratory or what a career in science can offer. The modules described above are among 14 offered as part of Destiny’s curriculum. All of Destiny’s modules are aligned with the N.C. Standard Course of Study.
The teachers mentioned above attended workshops to learn how to incorporate these specific curriculum modules into their classrooms, which also made them eligible to request school visits from Destiny’s traveling science laboratories.
Destiny’s current principal funders are the state of North Carolina, the Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) Program in the National Center for Research Resources, and GlaxoSmithKline. Additional support comes from Bio-Rad Laboratories and Medtronic Inc.
The science buses are powerful visual images that heighten public awareness of the importance of and funding necessary for quality science education. Created by Carolina in 2000, Destiny became a program of Morehead Planetarium and Science Center in 2006.
Destiny Web site: http://www.moreheadplanetarium.org/go/destiny
Destiny contact: Claire Ruocchio, clr@unc.edu or (919) 843-5915
News Services contact: Susan Houston, (919) 962-8415 or susan_houston@unc.edu