In the Spotlight

Bottled Water Basics—The flyer Water Health: Bottled Water Basics provides background information on drinking water and specifically characteristics of bottled water. Safe water is essential to good health. Informed consumers can decide whether the extra cost and waste of drinking bottled water makes sense in their particular situations.

What A Year!—What A Year! highlights the people who discover things. This site features a science breakthrough each month and gives some information about the people behind it. Teams of people may work for months or years to advance a piece of knowledge; they depend on the people who came before; they help the people who come later. Investigate the exciting stories behind these important discoveries.

Biotechnology Career Resource—The video “Heal, Feed, Sustain: How Biotechnology Can Help Save the World” is a 25-minute film focusing on exciting careers in biotechnology for middle and high school students. It features three students who travel to biotech centers in North Carolina to get an up-close look at the amazing research happening there.

Building for the Future: Toxicology Training Centers—Institutions of higher learning are the cornerstone of toxicology and are a fundamental key to the future of our science. Learn more about some of the many training centers that have helped make toxicology what it is today. As part of SOT’s 50th Anniversary, the Society compiled a series of historical vignettes that provide interesting insight about the scientists and their programs. To learn more, visit the 50th Anniversary website.

New Release—Announcing the Release of ToxLearn Module I: “Introduction to Toxicology and Dose Response,” A New National Library of Medicine resource Developed in Conjunction with the SOT Education Committee.

Safety First! Careers in Drug Safety and Toxicology—Many see the development of new drug safety metrics as the field’s future. Find more information on the Science Careers website.

Why Teach Toxicology?  Since toxicology is an interdisciplinary science drawing upon biochemistry, physiology, genetics, ecology, health science, mathematics, statistics and many other fields, topics in toxicology can be used in many areas of the curriculum, even in subjects such as ethics, political science, and sociology. Toxicology-related subjects are frequently in the news and in our concerns. Thinking about questions such as “Is this product safe?” and “What evidence do we use to determine if an environmental hazard exists?” provides good experience in the application of the scientific process and weighing of evidence. Learn more about why to teach toxicology.

Educational Resources

NIEHS Lesson Resources

NIEHS Curricular Material

NIH National Library of Medicine Resources

Publication Resources

Paracelsus Series

Basic Principles of Toxicology—This exercise is designed to help you to understand some of the general principles that are important to toxicologists in their quest to understand the biological effects of chemicals. What follows is a description of several terms that will help you to understand how to think about foreign chemicals in natural systems. There are no reference materials necessary for this exercise except the list of Common Toxicology Terms.

Find the Toxic Dose—This exercise will allow you to become a toxicologist. You will determine the toxic dose of a chemical that will inhibit seed germination. The living system in which you will perform this exercise is the rapid-cycling Brassica rapa, a plant related to cabbages and mustards. 

Toxicology Topics Enrichment Exercises—Try giving these independent assignments to students so they can learn about current events.

What Toxicologists Say

Several of SOT’s past presidents talked recently about toxicology and their experiences as members of SOT. View what these Toxicologists had to say.