Media Advisories Destiny science program to visit Morganton, first time to Patton High School
| Destiny science program to visit Morganton, first time to Patton High School |
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| Friday, May 02, 2008 | |
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Media representatives are invited to experience hands-on science aboard Discovery, one of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s two traveling science laboratories, when it visits Patton High School and Freedom High School next week. It will be the first time that the Destiny program has visited Patton High School. Wednesday (May 7) 11:05 a.m. to 12:35 p.m. 1:10 p.m. to 2:40 p.m. Patton High School 701 Enola Rd., Morganton Students from two of Ashlee Tietje’s honors 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. Thursday (May 8) 7:55 a.m. to 9:25 a.m. 9:35 a.m. to 11:05 a.m. Freedom High School 511 Independence Blvd., Morganton Students from one of Kathy McCormick’s biology classes and one of her college placement 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 Carolina 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 above teachers attended workshops to learn how to incorporate these 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 the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center in 2006. Destiny Web site: http://www.moreheadplanetarium.org/go/destiny Destiny contacts: Claire Ruocchio, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ; Karen Kornegay, (919) 843-7952 News Services contact: Lisa Katz, (919) 962-2093, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |