Media Advisories Wilmington students to get hands-on science lesson onboard Carolina's Destiny bus
| Wilmington students to get hands-on science lesson onboard Carolina's Destiny bus |
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| Monday, April 14, 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 New Hanover High School this week. Thursday (April 17) 10:06 a.m. to 11:40 a.m. 1:56 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. New Hanover High School 1307 Market Street, Wilmington Students from two of Bethany Noller’s honors biology classes will perform a lab exercise called “Weigh to Go!” They will explore connections between obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Using hydrophobic interactive chromatography, a key process in biotechnology research, the students will purify a genetically engineered designer protein (simulated modified leptin) from transformed bacterial cells. 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 module described above is one of 14 offered as part of Destiny’s curriculum. All of Destiny’s modules are aligned with the N.C. Standard Course of Study. Noller attended a workshop to learn how to incorporate this Destiny curriculum module into her classroom, which also made her eligible to request a school visit from one of 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-Chapel Hill’s Morehead Planetarium and Science Center in 2006. Destiny Web site: http://www.moreheadplanetarium.org/go/destiny Destiny contact: Claire Ruocchio, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , (919) 843-5915 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 |