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

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

Tuesday (Jan. 6)
7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.
9:10 a.m. to 10:40 a.m.
Hillside High School
3727 Fayetteville St., Durham

Carolyn Snipes’ physical science students 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 (Jan. 7)
9:40 a.m. to 11:10 a.m.
Noon to 1:30 p.m.
Githens Middle School
4800 Old Chapel Hill Road, Durham

Tammy Whyte’s seventh-grade science students will perform a lab exercise called “Genes in a Bottle.” Students extract DNA from their own cheek cells using a simple laboratory procedure and watch it precipitate from solution as floating white strands.  The DNA strands are collected and transferred into a vial or necklace.

The Destiny Traveling Science Learning Program is a science education outreach initiative of Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, serving 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 buses equipped as mobile science laboratories, bring advanced science and technology equipment to students who otherwise might not see high-tech experiments or what a career in science can offer. The mobile science labs are powerful visual images that heighten public awareness of the importance of and funding necessary for quality science education.

To be eligible to request a visit from a Destiny mobile science lab, each participating teacher must attend workshops to learn how to incorporate module activities and experiments into his or her classroom.  Destiny offers 15 different science modules, each aligned with the N.C. Standard Course of Study.

The Destiny program was created by UNC-Chapel Hill in 2000. Its principal funders are the State of North Carolina and GlaxoSmithKline, with additional support from Bio-Rad Laboratories and from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. Since 2006, Destiny has been part of Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.

Destiny Web site: http://www.moreheadplanetarium.org/go/destiny
Destiny media contact:  Karen Kornegay, (919) 843-7952, kck@unc.edu
News Services contact: Susan Houston, (919) 962-8415, susan_houston@unc.edu

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