Introduce kids to the world of animals, and you've artfully enticed them into the realm of science. That's the secret of "Animal Ambassadors," an innovative educational outreach program now being presented to Los Angeles and Sacramento area 4-H members and elementary school students by the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine. "The program is designed to teach kids about care and responsibility for both domestic and wild animals," explained Martin Smith, director of Animal Ambassadors. "At the same time, we hope to help them develop critical thinking skills and encourage them to explore future career options." Smith has spent the past year and a half working with UC Davis student interns to design the Animal Ambassadors curriculum, which ranges from animal habitats to family pets. The curriculum is being pilot-tested in 14 inner-city 4-H after-school programs in the Los Angeles area. Long known for its educational activities in agricultural animal science, 4-H is adjusting to dramatic demographic changes in California, Smith said. With 25 percent of the state's children now living in Los Angeles County, a new, more urban, approach is needed. Due to liability and animal-welfare issues, as well as the challenges of pet ownership in many urban homes, Animal Ambassadors brings no live animals when it visits classrooms or 4-H clubs -- an initial disappointment to the kids, Smith admitted. But hand those kids a dozen mysterious, rubbery animal track molds, and they soon forget the lack of furry and feathered critters. The tracks are used to teach students about animals and their habitats and eventually for creating stamped paintings. While emphasizing both science and the environment, Animal Ambassadors aims to be a cross-curricular program, also weaving in geography, art, math and reading. "The challenge is first and foremost to make learning fun for kids," Smith explained. "In these pilot tests, the kids vote with their feet. If they don't like it, they're out of there." In addition to the 4-H pilot presentations, Animal Ambassadors is also working with Sacramento students at Grant High and Fairbanks Elementary schools through the campus's School/University Partnerships program. Two teams, each including two high-school students, come to UC Davis weekly during a 16-week period. The high-school students are paired with two UC Davis student interns. During each visit, the teams meet at different locations and with a variety of guest speakers, ranging from faculty members to veterinarians to UC Davis students. The high-school students become familiar with both campus places and faces. "We want to let the high-school students know what college is like and to help them feel comfortable being on campus," Smith said. "We also want them to have UC Davis students as mentors." The high-school students and college interns will then present the Animal Ambassadors curriculum to third-grade classes at Fairbanks Elementary. Even in its infancy, Animal Ambassadors appears to be a resounding success. Smith and interns offer 60- to 90-minute presentations over a period of 4-5 weeks each quarter at on-site day-care programs at Davis elementary schools. And this month they will visit Plainfield Elementary School in nearby Woodland to work with a special class of deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Several other veterinary schools have expressed interest in replicating Animal Ambassadors at their own universities, and a publishing company plans to produce the program's curriculum in learning kits. A survey indicated that the outreach program is the only one of its kind among the nation's veterinary schools. In addition to providing materials for classroom and 4-H education, the curriculum also is intended to equip veterinarians to do personal outreach activities in their own communities. Funded in part by the School of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Ambassadors also relies heavily on private support. A $50,000 grant recently was provided by the American Honda Foundation to develop a state and national training model for the program and to disseminate the program's curriculum. Other funding has come from the UC Davis School/University Partnership program and the Division of Education's CRESS Center.