Toyota USA Foundation has granted the USC School of Pharmacy $146,000 to expand a science discovery outreach program for students at Murchison Elementary School in East Los Angeles.

The grant will fund the first two years of a projected nine-year K-9 science, math and engineering curriculum being created by USC scientists, engineers and their research laboratories initially for Murchison students.

The funding, coupled with a National Science Foundation award, is allowing the school’s Pharmaceutical Sciences Center to bring the Science, Technology and Research (STAR) program – a collaboration between USC and Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School – to elementary school children and their teachers.

“The Toyota USA Foundation grant brings scientists and engineers and their graduate students to the classrooms of one of the nation’s poorest and lowest-performing elementary schools,” said Roberta Diaz Brinton, professor of molecular pharmacology and toxicology and director of the STAR program.

“This dynamic and innovative program incorporates science and engineering principles into the entire elementary school curriculum,” she added. “Most importantly, children come to feel at ease when applying science and engineering principles to the every-day facets of their lives, both inside and outside the classroom.”

In the STAR program, gifted high school students and USC scientists work side by side, conducting laboratory research.

In the expanded program, Murchison educators, USC scientists and community experts are designing grade-appropriate science, math and engineering modules that fit within the elementary science curriculum.