Published: February 05, 2010 04:26 pm      

What type are you?

ARCHDALE — When a patient needs blood, three donors offer to give. But which of the three has the right blood type?

That’s the question seventh-grade science students at Archdale-Trinity Middle School had to answer recently when the Destiny mobile lab came to the campus. A learning tool of the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, Destiny travels all over the state with various programs that local schools would otherwise be unable to provide.

Cathy Pike and Nick Hoffmann, science education specialists with Destiny, led Dana Zoltek’s students through the process of identifying blood types. Each student had access to laboratory equipment, including $150 pipettes used to pick up and dispense liquids during experiments.

Created in 2000 for high school students, this is the first year the Destiny buses have included middle schools through an initiative called DREAMS (Destiny’s Role in Engaging and Advancing Middle School Science). Before the Destiny mobile labs can go to a school, a teacher at that school must take a workshop in the particular curriculum. Zoltek said she had taken the “Code Red” workshop last summer. Then she went over the material in class in preparation for the Destiny sessions.

Students entering the bus are given safety glasses and rubber gloves. They’re divided into teams of two and go to a work space.

The Destiny specialists are wired with microphones and use strategically-located video monitors for closeup instruction.

Prior to carrying out the blood testing (using simulated fluids), Hoffmann and Pike instructed the students in the use of pipettes, from loading the disposable tips to picking up and dispensing liquids. Working in pairs, the students labeled testing plates for four blood samples, dropped samples from the patient and donors on the plates then added two types of antibodies to the samples. Which antibodies caused the samples to clot determined the blood types.

“From what I could tell, they really loved it,” Zoltek said of her students. She said her science classes had read about blood typing but hadn’t seen the process first hand. The Destiny lab gave them that chance.

“And, they were able to see what working in a lab is really like.” she said.