A student assistant is needed for ~5 hours per week in the Fall semester to help Prof. Shelly Miller with her First-Year Seminar class (see below). The assistant will be paid $750. Please email shelly.miller@colorado.edu with your interest and resume.
Can we stay safe in a toxic world?
Toxins in Our Environment: Health Impacts and What We Can Do About It (Sect 09)—Shelly Miller, Professor, Mechanical Engineering
T/TH, 9:30–10:45 a.m.
In this course, we will learn what is an environmental toxin, the adverse health effects associated with exposure, and everyday actions we can take to reduce our exposures to toxins. A toxin is a substance that causes, directly or indirectly, harmful effects. We will discuss how society creates, regulates and perceives the effects of environmental toxins. We will emphasize the complexity of the issues and the difficulty in resolving them. This is a diverse topic and combines the fields of toxicology, exposure assessment, epidemiology, environmental engineering, environmental science, medicine, public health, sociology, and chemistry with politics, lobbying, economics, marketing, law, media, and human behaviorism. Unfortunately for you, your professor is not an expert in all of these topics! You will have to help me fill in the missing pieces. A goal of this course is to create an experience-oriented learning environment in which you have a more interactive role in the day-to-day classroom activities. We will use our computers regularly, so bring a laptop. Activities will include multimedia presentations, computer exercises, homework with real-world data analysis, readings, and discussion groups. We will also use social media to communicate what we are learning with the world.