ADVISORY

Friday, April 30, 10 a.m.
West Brunswick High School, Room 123 (Auditorium)
550 Whiteville Road NW, Shallotte

Destiny, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s traveling science laboratory, will serve as the focal point Friday of a celebration highlighting an expanding partnership with the Brunswick County community. The event will include remarks by UNC and community leaders, an open house and science bus tours and demonstrations led by students. Speakers will be Brunswick County Schools Superintendent Robert E. Daniel, Brunswick Community College President W. Michael Reaves, UNC Chancellor James Moeser and UNC Biology Professor Walter "Skip" Bollenbacher.

Destiny has been serving Brunswick County since fall 2000, providing training, classroom materials and technology to teachers and students. Already, hundreds of Brunswick students have participated in wet-laboratory experiences aboard the bus or in classrooms. Destiny also has trained 38 teachers from county high schools, middle schools and the community college.

The Brunswick partnership, which has statewide implications, involves both the school system and the community college. Goals include helping improve career options for the county’s high school graduates and attracting new businesses to the local economy. Community and government organizations also are involved. Speakers at Friday’s event will announce plans to expand the program and the local steering committee. The partnership is among the topics Moeser will discuss earlier Friday with the South Brunswick Islands Rotary Club in Ocean Isle Beach. Partnership details:  http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/other/brunswick_destiny.pdf

Destiny, a custom-built 40-foot, 26,000-pound bus is full of state-of-the-art science and technology equipment for wet-lab experiments, Internet exploration and classroom materials. The project, among the first of its kind nationwide, grew from the Partnership for Minority Advancement in the Biomolecular Sciences, a consortium UNC began more than a decade ago with historically minority universities. The consortium introduces biomolecular science into N.C. public school and college classrooms in response to a science teacher shortage and a lack of diversity within the science professions. The bus brings the latest science and technology to students who otherwise would not see a high-technology laboratory or what a science career can offer. Since hitting the road in 2000, Destiny has visited 95 counties, 104 school systems and 250 schools. The bus has reached more than 850 educators, hosted more than 8,500 students for lab experiences on board and provided more than 24,000 students with classroom curriculum materials. For information, go to www.unc.edu/destiny/

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UNC News Services contact: Mike McFarland, (919) 962-8593
Destiny contact: Lauren Hunt, (919) 880-5775 (cell)