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Media representatives are invited to experience hands-on science aboard a DESTINY traveling science laboratory during school visits next week. Through DESTINY, local students conduct laboratory experiments led by outreach educators from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.

Media representatives are invited to experience hands-on science aboard a DESTINY traveling science laboratory during school visits next week. Through DESTINY, local students conduct laboratory experiments led by outreach educators from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.

Scotland County
Scotland High School
1000 W. Church St., Laurinburg

Tuesday (Feb. 14)
10:59 a.m.–12:33 p.m.
Kathy Williams’s students will conduct “The Crucial Concentration.” Students 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, they learn how to use a spectrophotometer, measure absorbance, collect quantitative data and produce a standard curve to find the protein content in each sample.

Wednesday (Feb. 15)
7:40–9:14 a.m. and 9:19–10:53 a.m.
Kathy Williams’s students will conduct “The Crucial Concentration,” described above.

Spring Hill Middle School
22801 Airbase Road, Laurinburg

Thursday (Feb. 16)
9–10:10 a.m. (Mishue) and 11:55 a.m.–1 p.m. (McIlwain)
Wenona Mishue’s and Sherry McIlwain’s students will conduct “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. “Genes in a Bottle” is offered through DREAMS (Destiny’s Role in Engaging and Advancing Middle School Science), a DESTINY option especially for middle schools.

The DESTINY Traveling Science Learning Program serves pre-college teachers and students across North Carolina. DESTINY (Delivering Edge-cutting Science Technology and Internet across North Carolina for Years to come) develops and delivers standards-based, hands-on science curricula 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 17 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 website: www.moreheadplanetarium.org/go/destiny
DESTINY media contact: Karen Kornegay, (919) 843-7952, kck@unc.edu
News Services contact: Susan Hudson, (919) 962-8415, susan_hudson@unc.edu

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