n e w s m a k e r s : Science on a Roll

f you want to attract students to science, take the science to them.

That's the philosophy behind a rolling science laboratory designed to take high-school students on a magical mystery tour of modern biology. "I got interested in science not because I read about it, but because I touched it," says Walter "Skip" Bollenbacher, professor of biology.

To put a similar experience within reach of students and teachers in North Carolina high schools, Bollenbacher teamed with several collaborators to create the 40-foot bus and its programs. The bus is called Destiny, the name chosen by students from two participating high schools.

Equipped with wet and dry labs, high-tech instruments, and Internet connections, Destiny began making appearances last fall at high schools participating in a program known as PMABS (Partnership for Minority Advancement in the Biomolecular Sciences). Students perform one of six experiments, which include diagnosing sickle cell anemia or HIV in hypothetical patients and analyzing DNA to solve a crime. Before the visits, teachers from the participating schools attend workshops to learn the experiments and plan ways to incorporate them into their classes.

"It's amazing how much technology they've packed into this little space," says Opal Gray, who teaches advanced-placement biology at Southeast Halifax High School. "We don't have a lot of these things in our school, so this gives us a chance to introduce them to our students."

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