Undergraduate Educators

The Society of Toxicology supports the teaching of toxicology to undergraduates and has an active community of undergraduate educators. The Faculty United for Toxicology Undergraduate Recruitment and Education (FUTURE) Committee encourages any SOT member interested in undergraduate education to join this Undergraduate Educator Network. To subscribe, log in to ToXchange. Go to “Communities” in the navigation bar and select “Open Groups.” “Undergraduate Educator Network” will display; click the “Join” button. Select the frequency to receive emails.

Undergraduate Educator Network Newsletter February 2023

FUTURE Opportunities for Toxicology Educators and Students—Introduction to activities organized by FUTURE and SOT resources for faculty and undergraduates (14 minutes).

SOT Undergraduate Educator and Student Opportunities Message

We encourage poster abstract submissions for the education, ethical, legal, and social issues topic poster session. More information.

The resources below are available for teaching toxicology, integrating the discipline into other courses, and for outreach activities. A summary of these resources is in this file. FUTURE recommends these resources related to the mentoring of undergraduates.

These slides are available for usage in noncommercial educational settings, including:

  • Presentations on introductory toxicology
  • Career information presentations

Images or other portions of any individual slide are not for use outside the context of the individual slide.

Some editing of the individual slide is permissible for appropriate modification for a specific presentation, with retention of the indicated copyrights.

General Introduction to Toxicology (10 slides)
Toxicology as a Discipline (14 slides)
Toxicology Concepts (25 slides)
Careers in Toxicology (17 slides)
SOT Information and Summary (6 slides)

Contact Betty Eidemiller with questions, comments, or suggestions.

With the goal of producing useful resources for educators to encourage students along the pathway to graduate school and careers in toxicology, the SOT Education Committee's Undergraduate Subcommittee established a work group to develop learning objectives for undergraduate toxicology courses. Publication of the resulting framework will facilitate the development and sharing of evidenced-based teaching materials for toxicology educators throughout the world and expand toxicology’s impact to a broader audience. This framework supports the NSF AAAS Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology recommendations for student-centered learning that reflect the process of science, topics connected to the lives of students, and what we know about effective learning practices.

The toxicology learning objectives echo the core Vision and Change concepts, which are evolution; pathways and transformations of energy and matter; information flow, exchange, and storage; structure and function; and systems. Toxicology learning objectives will provide guidance for faculty teaching toxicology in a basic undergraduate toxicology course as well as in other courses, and exclude examples and case study references. After reviewing course syllabi and textbooks, the group proposed these five core toxicology concepts: evolution; pathways and transformations of energy and matter; systems toxicology; biological information; and risk assessment. In addition, learning objectives were determined and additional detail outlined for each, such that there are four levels of detail. Publication of this framework alongside those of the other major life science disciplines (CourseSource, LifeSciTRC) will facilitate the development and sharing of evidenced-based teaching materials for toxicology educators throughout the world and expand toxicology’s impact to a broader audience.

Society of Toxicology Develops Learning Framework for Undergraduate Toxicology Courses Following the Vision and Change Core Concepts Model, Toxicological Sciences, Volume 170, Issue 1, July 2019, Pages 20–24, https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfz090

Foundational Concepts in Undergraduate Toxicology: Applying Vision & Change to the Development of Core Competencies and Learning Objectives for an Undergraduate Toxicology Course—2018 Annual Meeting poster

Toxicology Learning Framework

The North Carolina Higher Education Faculty and Mentor Network hosted a free webinar series in 2021–2022 that provided resources and examples to help faculty integrate core principles of toxicology into various undergraduate courses. The series was co-facilitated by Joshua Gray and Mindy Reynolds, with a guest facilitator for each session as below.

Webinar 1. An Introduction to the Core Concepts of Toxicology | Presentation Slides—Chris Perdan Curran
Toxicology Core Concepts

Webinar 2. A Focus on Evolution | Presentation Slides—Jed Goldstone
Webinar 3. Biological Information—Toxicology and the Genome | Presentation Slides—Alicia Timme-Laragy
Webinar 4. Pathways and Transformations of Toxicants, from Dose-Response to ADME | Presentation Slides—Kristine Willett
Webinar 5. Systems Toxicology | Presentation Slides—Eva Oberdorster
Webinar 6. Risk Assessment | Presentation Slides—Annie Jarabek and George Woodall
Webinar 7. A Culmination of Core Concepts to Teach Toxicology | Presentation Slides—Nimrat Obhi

The Faculty United for Toxicology Undergraduate Recruitment and Education (FUTURE) Committee leads SOT efforts to provide quality toxicology teaching resources and encourages faculty to develop and share materials that incorporate toxicology throughout undergraduate courses.

Go to: The SOT Undergraduate Curriculum Resources

The Faculty United for Toxicology Undergraduate Recruitment and Education (FUTURE) Committee sponsors webinars designed to provide development opportunities for undergraduate educators and those who are considering this career path. Recordings of past webinars are available for viewing.

Go to: Undergraduate Educator Network Webinar recordings

The Faculty United for Toxicology Undergraduate Recruitment and Education (FUTURE) Committee in conjunction with the Eminent Toxicologist Work Group has organized historically relevant, high quality presentations appropriate for senior undergraduate students, graduate students, or the scientifically-oriented general public.

Go to: Eminent Toxicologist Lectures

The North Carolina Higher Education Faculty and Mentor Network is a pilot outreach program to undergraduate educators in North Carolina. The goal of the program is to increase toxicology content in undergraduate courses and raise awareness of the value of toxicology and toxicology careers.

Go to: North Carolina Higher Education Faculty and Mentor Network