Following the lead of extraterrestrial Exee from the planet Y, local elementary school children will be poking around in their mouths and discovering what’s inside thanks to a new USC campus and community collaboration.

Released in July 2002, “Open Wide and Trek Inside,” is a science curriculum supplement developed by the National Institutes of Health. USC’s schools of dentistry, education and medicine have teamed up and will join with teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District to introduce this curriculum supplement in local schools.
“This is the first time we at the NIH are working with a university and elementary teachers in training and use of this science supplement,” said David Vannier, professional development coordinator for the NIH’s office of science education. “What we learn will be used as a model for training other elementary school teachers across the country.”

The USC project, which recently won support from a $25,000 urban initiative grant, will implement and evaluate the curriculum. The intent of the supplement is to foster science literacy, interest in science and understanding of oral health.

“While we plan to begin implementation of the program in our local schools, our objective is to make USC a regional resource for the ‘Open Wide’ program,” says Roseann Mulligan, principal investigator on the project.

Co-principal investigators include William F. McComas, Rossier School of Education’s director of the program to advance science education, and Thomas William Valente, the Keck School of Medicine’s director of the master of public health program.

According to McComas, elementary school kids get, on average, about 18 minutes of science instruction per week. He’s enthusiastic about the prospect. “I think using a vehicle like ‘Open Wide and Trek Inside’ —not only for enhancing oral health, but also for teaching kids some basic science concepts—is just a wonderful idea,” he says.

Valente is excited about working with other USC schools on the project. “I see this as a good opportunity to extend our work with local communities and to move into a different health area with the communities we serve.”

At the same time, says Valente, it provides added opportunities for graduate students in public health to be involved in program implementation issues and to evaluate what works and what doesn’t. It is anticipated that graduate and professional students in each school’s programs will be involved in the project.

During the eight-month period covered by the grant, the project focuses on development, planning and initial implementation. After the group’s first meeting there was interest in trying to find a correct placement for the curriculum in elementary grades of California schools. Although intended to target first- and second-grade students, project planners agreed that the differences between this state’s K-12 standards and those of other states and national standards may require some local field-testing.

The NIH Office of Science Education personnel will conduct initial training for 10 USC faculty and approximately 30 teachers from the USC Family of Schools. Implementation is expected to follow.

In addition to developing evaluation tools, interdisciplinary research projects and launching implementation during this grant period, Mulligan