Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Kaci Bohn of the Harding University College of Pharmacy received a mini-grant from the Blue and You Foundation of Arkansas. Bohn was awarded $1,000 for her personal project of a children’s book covering medication safety.

Bohn has been on the University College of Pharmacy faculty since 2011 and began her work on the children’s medication safety book January 2013. The book focuses on an interactive character, “Morty™,” a medicine capsule. This capsule teaches children to not put items in their mouths, and he changes colors throughout the story to indicate the proper and improper use of medicine.

Bohn’s overall project goal is to create and develop a children’s medication safety program. The whole project will include the children’s book, an app for mobile phones and tablets, and a website all covering medication safety content.

University alumna Maddi Wilkerson, illustrator of the book, and third-year pharmacy student Jessica Cox have assisted Bohn in developing the book. In addition, Holly Wilkerson and Jessica Knoske, also pharmacy students, have worked on creating the curriculum comprised of Power Point presentations, worksheets, coloring pages and activities. The book will also be available digitally on a number of mobile devices.

The main target audience of the project is kindergarten through second-grade students. Bohn plans on using the funds to print the first set of books with Harding Press and send prototypes to local elementary school campuses within Searcy to receive feedback from students and teachers.

Bohn is excited to receive this opportunity and is working diligently on the entire process of validation and curriculum development. She plans to distribute the prototypes this semester in order to finalize her work this summer and pursue a publisher.