Undergraduate Toxicology Teaching Forum

March 10, 2003

Salt Lake City, Utah

The meeting was called to order by Dr. Sue Ford. Participants introduced themselves. Those attending included:

Dan Acosta, Suzanne Conklin, Ann dePeyster, John Duffus, Betty Eidemiller, Ted Farber, Elaine Faustman, Sue Ford, Deke Gundersen, Peter Harvison, Vera Hudson, Elaine Knight, Marti Lindsey, Sharon Meyer, Kim Miller, Eva Oberdoerster, Norbert Page, Bonita Taffe, Joan Tarloff, Louis Trombetta, Philip Wexler

Activities Update. The minutes from the Nashville Forum March 18, 2003, were reviewed. These are available at

<http://nsm1.nsm.iup.edu/tsimmons/Tox_Teach_Project_Home.shtm>

along with other related documents Dr. Thomas Simmons has collected at the Toxicology Teaching Project web site. Dr. Simmons has been increasing the list of undergraduate toxicology programs and has recently posted the course survey he developed on-line at

<http://nsm1.nsm.iup.edu/tsimmons/Tox_Teach_Project_Course_Survey.htm>.

Dr. Daniel Acosta, chair of the SOT Task Force for the Recruitment and Retention of Students in Toxicology, described the charge and listed the task force members. The group will be submitting recommendations in a final report to Council by March 2004.

Dr. Elaine Faustman, chair of the Education Committee, commended the group on their activities and reiterated the support of the Education Committee. The recent committee self-study identified undergraduate education as an area needing more emphasis. She encouraged the group to maintain close communication with the Task Force, Education Committee and Subcommittees to develop stronger alliances along the pipeline to toxicology. The Society will be revising the Resource Guide to Careers in Toxicology

this summer and would appreciate feedback on making it more useful for students and for the programs included. There was a lot of discussion about this topic but few signed up for the work group.

Dr. Betty Eidemiller from SOT Headquarters gave an overview of the NSF Digital Library Project and the AAAS-lead effort by life science societies to provide a single portal for comprehensive resources for undergraduate education. SOT has a small amount of funding through that grant to catalog and metatag toxicology materials that are provided on the web.

Dr. Ford led a discussion of ideas relative to web resources for teaching of toxicology. Interest in this project was high. There appears to be diverse needs as different programs would use different types of materials. One suggestion was case studies of topics of current importance, such as the banning of DDT at the cost of increase in malaria and decrease in productivity, and other news items with practical applications. These should be updated. ToxTutor provided by the National Library of Medicine is one current resource, and assistance is sought to update and expand the content. There was strong support for a web page to share basic teaching resources.

Participants discussed the value of establishing a Toxicology Student Honor Society to recognize students and increase the visibility of the discipline. This was not viewed as a priority, although individual programs could try out the concept. St. John’s Toxicology Club will proceed. There was support for the idea of providing travel stipends so undergraduates can attend the annual meeting.

Ideas for an Undergraduate Toxicology Teaching Symposium at the 2004 annual meeting were discussed. Some suggested undertaking a smaller project before writing a session proposal, for example, a one hour lunch or 4 pm session. Several recommended a co-sponsor. No clear consensus on the focus of a session proposal emerged, but a group signed up to further develop the plans. Another suggestion was to have a scientific session for undergraduate students. Proposals for 2004 are due April 30.

This meeting established the need to develop a clear mission statement for the group.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:15 PM.

Working Groups:

SOT Web Site Advisory

John Duffus, Vera Hudson, Sharon Meyer

Toxicology Student Undergraduate Poster Session

Deke Gundersen, Peter Harvison, Eva Oberdoerster

Undergraduate Toxicology Symposium

Joan Tarloff, Vera Hudson, Bonita Taffe, Marti Lindsey

Careers on Toxicology – Recruitment

Suzanne Conklin