PITTSBORO -- The Destiny Traveling Science Learning Program, UNC's traveling bus laboratories, will visit several Chatham County schools this week.
From 11:55 a.m. to 1:27 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. Monday the bus will be at Northwood High School, 310 Northwood High School Road.
Cari Christopherson's and Victoria Redmond's biology students will perform a lab exercise called "Get a Clue." 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.
From 10:15 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. Tuesday the bus will be at Bennett School, 61 Randolph St., Bennett. Travis Flippin's eighth-grade science students will perform a lab exercise called "So Fresh, So Clean."
Students will learn about the chemistry of water and its role in their daily lives through an investigation of the differences and similarities of bottled water and tap water. They will build their own pH scales and simulate part of the water treatment process. This module is offered by DREAMS (Destiny's Role in Engaging and Advancing Middle School Science), a new Destiny initiative especially for middle schools.
From 10:39 a.m. to 11:39 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday the bus will be at Woods Charter School, 160 Woodland Grove Lane, Chapel Hill.
Sonya Younger's and Janet Moody's eighth-grade science students will perform the "So Fresh, So Clean" lab exercise.
The Destiny Program is a science education outreach initiative of Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, 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 buses equipped as mobile science laboratories, bring advanced science and technology equipment to students who otherwise might not see high-tech experiments or know what a career in science can offer. Destiny offers 15 different science modules, each aligned with the N.C. Standard Course of Study.
The Destiny program was created by UNC Chapel Hill in 2000. Its principal funders are the State of North Carolina and GlaxoSmithKline, with additional support from Bio-Rad Laboratories and from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. Since 2006, Destiny has been part of Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.
