JoinAll Case Studies
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Types of cases are defined as follows: Analysis/Issues, Clicker, Debate, Intimate Debate, Demonstration, Dilemma/Decision, Directed, Discussion, Interrupted, Jig-saw, Journal Article, Laboratory, Student Presentations, Mini-case, Problem-Based Learning, Public Hearing, Role-Play, Trial, Flipped, Game
By Brahmadeo Dewprashad, Geraldine S. Vaz
This case study was developed to engage students by making connections between core concepts in chemistry and obesity related factors. The case is in the form of a story between two friends and their underestimation of the calories they consumed in a...
By Jennifer Y. Anderson, Diane R. Wang, Ling Chen
Tom and his grandfather, a retired high school chemistry teacher, are talking about a National Geographic television documentary titled “Waking the Baby Mammoth.” As students read the dialogue that ensues, they learn how carbon, an essential elem...
By Jeanne Ting Chowning
This case study investigates the applications of genetics to medicine by exploring one of the first examples of a pharmacogenetic test to enter mainstream clinical practice. Pharmacogenetics examines how genetic variations in an individual correlate ...
One Headache After Another: Biochemistry Edition
By Ann T.S. Taylor, William H. Cliff
Topamax®, developed to treat epilepsy, is also used as a preventative for migraine. In this case study, students read about a woman experiencing a side-effect of Topamax and from there move to a review of acid-base balance in the human body. The cas...
By Frank J. Dinan, Thomas R. Stabler, Renee Larson
This interrupted case study highlights the importance of energy considerations within food chains by examining the population decline of Steller sea lions along the western Alaskan coast. A ban on commercial fishing of pollock in the 1970s caused a s...
By Ryan Doyle, Matthew Heslin, Michael Keller, Philip J. Stephens
This interrupted case study in cardiovascular and nerve physiology focuses on Lynn, a married woman with a young child whose husband is often away from home traveling on business. Lynn is anxious and short-tempered. She is also overweight and appears...
By Claudia Bode, Alan Gleue, Carolyn Pearson
This case study follows a family’s dilemma about how to save money on gasoline. Should they keep their SUV and trade in their Corolla for a hybrid sedan? Going from 28 (Corolla) to 48 (Hybrid) miles per gallon (MPG) should really save money on gas....
By Ling Chen, Jennifer Y. Anderson, Diane R. Wang
The Clarksons are making dinner for friends and decide to try out their new pressure cooker. As students read the dialogue that ensues, they learn about how the boiling point of water is directly related to external pressure, apply the ideal gas law,...
By Anne M. Casper
In this case, developed for an introductory genetics class, students meet a woman whose family has a history of colon cancer. Students create a pedigree based on information from the case and discuss what it means to be genetically predisposed to can...
By Thomas R. Stabler, Frank J. Dinan
In this case study, two students have been asked to conduct a “systems analysis” study to determine whether ethanol derived from corn or biodiesel prepared from soybeans is the more energy efficient alternative fuel. The students must investigate...
By Laurie LeBlanc, Robert Mazalewski, Jonathan Cook, Jasmine King
This case study, developed for a general chemistry course, is intended to teach students the interdisciplinary nature of environmental science. Students take on the role of environmental chemists. Using atomic absorption spectroscopy, they test...
Would You Supersize My Cancer, Please?
By Ashley Coffelt , Mark M. Richter
The recent discovery of acrylamide in both fried and baked foods like French fries and potato chips has caused alarm. Acrylamide is both a known carcinogen in animals when administered in high doses and a neurotoxin when humans are exposed to large a...
By Li-hsuan Yang
Does an ice cube melt more quickly in salt water or in freshwater? The answer surprises the group of student science teachers portrayed in this case study. To explain the phenomenon they must figure out the interactions between two clusters of concep...
By Michèle I. Shuster, Karen Peterson
This case study takes a combined directed and discussion approach to explore risk factors for breast cancer. After a preparatory reading assignment, students assess various medical histories derived from actual women with breast cancer and rank their...
By Richard Cowlishaw, Charles Hunter, Jason Coy, Michael Tessmer
This case is a classroom simulation of the types of negotiations that went into the Kyoto Protocol agreement on limiting global greenhouse gas emissions. It was developed for an environmental science course for first-year college students with minima...
By Melinda Box
This case study, developed for an introductory chemistry course as part of a two-year dental hygiene curriculum, teaches students how to apply gas properties and gas storage identification systems to identify a mishandled or mislabeled gas cylinder. ...
By Frank J. Dinan
This case study explores the unintended side effects of chemicals introduced into the environment, specifically organic compounds that can act as environmental estrogens (chemical castration agents that can interfere with the sexual development of em...
Which Little Piggy Went to Market?
By Debra A. Meuler
In this case study, a scientist is contacted by a friend from a meat processing plant who is looking for a test to determine the sex of the animals that contributed to a particular batch of meat. He needs to know because meat from uncastrated males (...
By Adam M. Boyd, Randolph K. Larsen, III
In this lab-based case, arson investigator “Marie Stanforth” comes under suspicion when her ex-husband dies in a fire. Students assume the role of forensic chemists working for the FBI to analyze charred samples recovered from the crime scene as ...
SNPs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails, and That's What People Are Made Of
By Debby Walser-Kuntz, Sarah Deel, Susan R. Singer
In this case on genome privacy, students work together to research one of six assigned lobbying groups’ views in this area and then present their groups’ positions before a mock meeting of a U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee as they cons...
By Michael Tessmer
This interrupted case study is based on current research involving the global transport of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Students are asked to propose several hypotheses and experiments in an attempt to determine how PCBs are transferred globally...
Accidental Drowning or Foul Play?
By Monika I. Konaklieva
This case was developed for use in the first semester of a sophomore organic chemistry laboratory to illustrate how a combination of techniques is usually required in the identification of chemical compounds. It involves a murder mystery with a foren...
The Case of the Tainted Taco Shells: General Edition
By Ann T.S. Taylor
This case discusses some of the issues associated with the use of genetically modified plants, including ecological risks, resistance, and allergenicity. The case has two versions, or editions. This edition (the "General Edition") emphasizes th...
By Stephen J. Shawl
What is a googol? Invented by Edward Kasner, an American mathematician who popularized the number in his 1940 book, Mathematics and the Imagination, it is a 1 followed by a hundred zeros. This directed case in estimation and very large numbers ...
By Traci E. Morris, Susannah Gal
In this case study, designed to help break down stereotypes about scientists and engineers, students research the personal and professional lives of researchers in their field. The case was designed for use in high school to graduate courses in a var...
By Christopher T. Bailey
In this particular take on the classic “Black Box Experiment,” students working in groups are given sealed boxes containing objects that they must make indirect observations about and then report their observations to the class in a simulated con...
Genetic Testing and Breast Cancer
By Charlotte R. Zales, Joseph C. Colosi
In this dilemma case, the central character, Kathy, must decide whether or not to be tested for known mutations in the breast cancer genes. Students assume the roles of members of Kathy’s book club and, using a jigsaw technique, explore the advanta...
By Eleonora Del Federico, Steven T. Diver, Monika I. Konaklieva, Richard Ludescher
In this dilemma case, the central character, a museum curator, must decide whether or not to show a painting as a hitherto “undiscovered” Cezanne. The stylistic analysis suggests it is for real, but data obtained using different spectroscopic tec...
By Christa Colyer
Developed for an upper-level undergraduate instrumental analysis course, this case actively engages students in an understanding of the abstract, often difficult to grasp, concepts of the van Deemter equation, important in the field of chemical separ...
By Wayne Seames
The characters in this dilemma case must balance personal financial considerations, their professional futures, and time constraints against ensuring that the new product they are proposing is safe. The case explores the issues surrounding ethical de...
By Frank J. Dinan, Joseph Bieron
In this case study, students grapple with the complex issues surrounding the use of DDT to control malaria in the developing world. In their examination of the issue, students consider risk/benefit analysis and the precautionary principle, two techni...
By Ed Acheson
"Tom Brown" is arrested at the airport on his way home for winter break and charged with possession of cocaine when a drug sniffing dog detects traces of the narcotic in his carry-on bag. Some of the money he is carrying has apparently been contamina...
By Jessie W. Klein
In this case, students are shown the relevance of chemistry in daily decision-making by taking a look at the popular dietary supplement, s-adenosylmethionine (SAMe), widely used in Europe for depression, arthritis, and liver disease and now available...
By Michael A. Jeannot
This case is based on an actual article entitled "Baby Alert" that appeared in Consumer Reports (May 1999). The article raises some concerns about the safety of polycarbonate baby bottles, and recommends that parents dispose of them as a precaution. ...
By Joseph Bieron, Frank J. Dinan
This case study was inspired by a successful lawsuit brought by students against a professor at Pace University who had assigned them the task of calculating the cost of a single aluminum atom in a roll of aluminum foil. The case deals with the conce...
By Mary Walczak, Juliette Lantz
This case was developed for use in the first weeks of a course in order to show students how participating in active learning exercises in their classes can benefit them. It uses the fictionalized story of a manager of a scientific consulting firm wh...