DESTINY Professional Development Programs

Every year, DESTINY holds workshops around the state that provide training and materials to teachers and enable them to use or adapt DESTINY's curriculum in their own classrooms.

DESTINY's innovative curriculum encourages students to think critically and creatively, shows them the relevance of science to their lives, and furthers their understanding of the world around them. All of DESTINY's curriculum modules are interdisciplinary in order to encourage students to develop their writing and math skills and to help them make connections between science and the humanities.

DESTINY's curriculum is aligned with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study and the National Science Education Standards.

Great news for teachers: Registration for DESTINY's 2009 workshops has been EXTENDED!

Download your application and fax it to (919) 962-1284. Remember, there is no charge for North Carolina middle and high school teachers to attend a DESTINY workshop, but you must register while spaces are available.

DESTINY will offer its newest curriculum module, “Brand Name Genes,” for the first time this summer at workshops hosted by our partners at North Brunswick High School in Brunswick County and Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College in Asheville. DESTINY will also offer training in two current curriculum modules for teachers who have not completed this training previously.

• NEW! for high schools: "Brand Name Genes"
  This module focuses on an important biotechnology process, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), and how it is used to detect the genetic defect that can lead to breast cancer.

  Upon completion of the “Brand Name Genes” workshop, educators will be given the materials they need to incorporate the module in their classroom. Please note that "Brand Name Genes" is not a stand-alone module; it includes a wet-lab activity that can be completed with school-owned equipment or, if the DESTINY program visits the school, aboard a DESTINY traveling science laboratory.

• NEW! for middle school: DREAMS
  "Code Red" and "So Fresh, So Clean"
  These two new curriculum modules for middle school, part of DESTINY's new DREAMS Initiative, are offered together in one training program!

  In "Code Red," students will learn about circulatory systems incorporating blood typing activities, aligned with seventh-grade standards from the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. In "So Fresh, So Clean," students will learn about water quality and water quality testing, incorporating pH activities and measurements, aligned with eighth-grade standards from the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.

• Power Within (high school)
  This module focuses on the fundamental concepts of evolutionary biology and leads students to understand the theory of endosymbiosis and the origin of eukaryotes. Educators will receive all the materials they need to incorporate this module straight into the classroom — it is a stand-alone module that doesn’t depend on equipment provided by the DESTINY mobile science laboratories.

• Crucial Concentration (high school)
  Students assume the role of laboratory investigators for a court case to determine the amount of protein found in three sports drinks. Using the general concept of the Lowry assay and microanalysis skills, students learn how to use a spectrophotometer, measure absorbencies, collect quantitative data and produce a standard curve to find the protein content in each sample.

Space is limited to 20 participants per workshop. If you are interested in attending more than one workshop (space permitting), please submit a separate application for each workshop.