Emerging trends in science and education: introducing the 3Rs concepts into pre-college classrooms

ABSTRACT

The advancement of breakthrough concepts in science and their implementation in society can only be achieved by starting early with the education of new generations of scientists. The concept of ‘Replacement, Reduction and Refinement’ (the 3Rs) in regards to animal use was first described by Russell and Burch in 1959. The 3Rs have nowadays a broader scope than simply encouraging alternatives to animal testing by bridging the gap between traditional animal-based toxicology and emerging technologies: cell- and tissue-based, organ- or body-on-a-chip, in silico computer models, etc. However, these principles are still relatively new to younger generations although tremendous efforts have been made by industry, regulators and academic groups to implement them globally. This manuscript proposes the introduction in early education stages of modern concepts of toxicology focused on the 3Rs in regards to animals use for testing. To support our proposal, we present a valuable dataset demonstrating the interest of students and teachers alike to learn more about non-animal testing methods, the concepts of 3Rs and modern testing strategies that are human-relevant and take into consideration the ethics of animal experimentation.

KEYWORDS:

• 3Rs
• in vitro toxicology
• education
• K-12
• curriculum

Acknowledgements

We thank Ms Nicole Green and Ms Katherine Lewis (Animalearn, Jenkintown, PA, USA), Ms Sue Leary [Alternatives Research & Development Foundation (ARDF), Jenkintown, PA, USA] and Ms Jennifer Cripps (St. Anthony of Padua Grade School, Wilmington, DE, USA for critically reading the manuscript and help with the design and content of the figures and tables. The authors also thank Mr Timothy Herpel (IIVS) for taking the pictures included in Figure 4(e,f).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.