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Media representatives are invited to experience hands-on science aboard Destiny, one of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s two traveling science laboratories, when it visits Rosman High School and Brevard High School next week.



Tuesday (Feb. 26)
8 a.m. to 9:40 a.m.
Rosman High School
749 Pickens Highway, Rosman

Students from one of Nancy Sanders’ honors biology classes will perform a lab exercise called “Mystery of the Crooked Cell.” They will discover the molecular basis of sickle cell disease by using gel electrophoresis as a diagnostic tool to differentiate normal hemoglobin from hemoglobin found in individuals with sickle cell disease.

Tuesday (Feb. 26)
11:20 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
Rosman High School
749 Pickens Highway, Rosman

Students from one of Nancy Sanders’ chemistry classes will perform a lab exercise called “The Crucial Concentration.” They 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, the 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. 27)
8:10 a.m. to 9:43 a.m.
1:31 p.m. to 3:01 p.m.
Brevard High School
747 Country Club Road, Brevard

Students from Jan Galloway’s biology classes and Kathy Piersol’s honors biology class will perform “Mystery of the Crooked Cell,” as described above.

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. “Mystery of the Crooked Cell” and “The Crucial Concentration” were developed from Boston University School of Medicine CityLab modules.

The teachers mentioned above attended workshops to learn how to incorporate these particular Destiny 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, GlaxoSmithKline and the N.C. Biotechnology Center. 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 UNC’s Morehead Planetarium and Science Center in 2006.

Destiny Web site: http://www.moreheadplanetarium.org/go/destiny

Destiny contact: Claire Ruocchio, (919) 843-5915, clr@unc.edu
News Services contact: Susan Houston, (919) 962-8415, susan_houston@unc.edu

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