Beyond the Bench: Tox-in-a-Box

The Tox Ambassador—a scientist visiting from a nearby university—squeezes several drops of blue dye into three different-sized beakers of water. The audience of sixth-grade students can easily see that although the same amount of dye is put in each beaker, the water in the smallest “baby” beaker turns much darker than that in the larger “big kid” and “adult” beakers. They are learning a key concept in toxicology: that your body size affects your dose, and that the dose makes the poison.