Media Advisory

UNC's Destiny traveling science learning program
visits Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools next week

Media representatives are invited to climb aboard Destiny, one of the traveling science laboratories in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Destiny science learning program, when it visits two Charlotte-Mecklenburg high schools next week.

Tuesday (Dec. 12)
7:15 a.m. to 8:52 a.m.
8:59 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Hopewell High School
11530 Beatties Ford Road, Huntersville
Students from two of Leigh Ann Williams' biology classes will perform a lab exercise called Mystery of the Crooked Cell. Students will discover the molecular basis of sickle cell disease by using gel electrophoresis as a diagnostic tool to differentiate normal hemoglobin from hemoglobin found in individuals with sickle cell disease.

Tuesday (Dec. 12)
11:07 a.m. to 12:37 p.m.
12:45 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.
Hopewell High School
11530 Beatties Ford Road, Huntersville
During the same visit, students from two of Renée Brice's biology classes will perform a lab exercise called Case of the Crown Jewels. Students 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 (Dec. 13)
7:15 a.m. to 8:50 a.m.
9 a.m. to 10:25 a.m.
E. E. Waddell High School
7030 Nations Ford Road, Charlotte
Students from two of Tamica Stubbs' biology classes will perform a lab exercise called Mystery of the Crooked Cell. Students will discover the molecular basis of sickle cell disease by using gel electrophoresis as a diagnostic tool to differentiate normal hemoglobin from hemoglobin found in individuals with sickle cell disease.

The Destiny traveling science learning program is the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center's formal science education initiative serving 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 13 offered as part of Destiny's curriculum. Mystery of the Crooked Cell is developed from a Boston University School of Medicine CityLab module. All of Destiny's modules are aligned with the N.C. Standard Course of Study.

The science buses are powerful visual images that heighten public awareness of the importance of and funding necessary for quality science education. Destiny first hit the road in 2000.

For more information, go to http://www.destiny.unc.edu

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Destiny contact: Claire Bury, (919) 843-5915 or bury@unc.edu
News Services contact: Becky Oskin, (919) 962-8596 or becky_oskin@unc.edu