Media Advisory

Southern Pines and Cameron students to experience
UNC's Destiny traveling science learning program

Media representatives are invited to climb aboard Destiny and Discovery, the traveling science laboratories from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Destiny science learning program, when it visits two Moore County high schools in Southern Pines and Cameron next week.

Tuesday (Dec. 19)
8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Pinecrest High School
250 Voit Gilmore Road, Southern Pines
Students from two of Donna Ansted's biology classes will perform a lab exercise called "From Finches to Fishes." Students will learn fundamental principles of evolution and natural selection, and protein gel electrophoresis will be used to acquire molecular data with which students will construct an evolutionary tree for five fish species.

Tuesday (Dec. 19)
9:40 a.m. to 11:10 a.m.
11:17 a.m. to 12:47 p.m.
Pinecrest High School
250 Voit Gilmore Road, Southern Pines
During the same visit, students from two of Barbara Hayworth's classes will perform a lab exercise called "Biological Bodyguards." Students will examine the vital role that the body's immune system takes to fight illness and prevent disease. Assuming the role of medical lab technicians, students will use a simulated viral extract and perform an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to screen hypothetical patients for the presence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Tuesday (Dec. 19)
8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
11:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.
Union Pines High School
1981 Union Church Road, Cameron
Students from two of Karen Griffin's 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 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. The Destiny program 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 contacts: Lisa Katz, (919) 962-2093; Becky Oskin, (919) 962-8596