Media Advisories Beaufort, Morehead City, Havelock students to get hands-on Destiny science lesson
| Beaufort, Morehead City, Havelock students to get hands-on Destiny science lesson |
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| Friday, May 02, 2008 | |
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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 East Carteret High School, West Carteret High School and Havelock High School next week.
Tuesday (May 6) 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. 9:35 a.m. to 11:10 a.m. East Carteret High School 3263 Hwy. 70, Beaufort Students from two of Stephanie Sanders’ 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 (May 7) 7:55 a.m. to 9:25 a.m. 11:10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. West Carteret High School 4700 Country Club Rd., Morehead City Students from two of Mary Loveless’ biology classes will also perform “Get a Clue,” as described above. Thursday (May 8) 7:55 a.m. to 9:25 a.m. Havelock High School 101 Webb Blvd., Havelock Students from one of Rob Thomas’ marine biology classes will perform “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 Carolina’s Morehead Planetarium and Science Center 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 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 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 |