JoinAll Case Studies
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Educational levels are defined as follows: Elementary, Middle, High School, College
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
Combatting the Southern Pine Beetle
By Ann T.S. Taylor, Rebecca L. Leuschen-Kohl
This case study begins with the story of a young biologist who belongs to an Indigenous community in rural Virginia where southern pine beetles (Dendroctonus frontalis) are wiping out the pine trees sacred to her native culture. She wonders if RNA in...
How Failing in Science Helped Solve the Coho Salmon Mystery
By Meghan Ward, Krystal Nunes, Nicole Laliberté, Fiona Rawle
This PowerPoint case study examines a series of coho salmon die-offs in the Pacific Northwest to introduce students to the importance of learning through failure in science. Such failures are an important part of the scientific process as they lead t...
By Matthew L. Simon
This case study serves as an extension to another case study originally published in 2006, “Can Suminoe Oysters Save Chesapeake Bay?” The original case provides students with a solid foundation for understanding the complexities of resource manag...
By Ariadna Mondragon-Botero, Susan M. Galatowitsch
In this case study, board members of a private forest reserve on the island of Madagascar seek funds for a forest restoration aimed at preserving endangered lemurs. During their monthly meeting, they discuss the details of a grant proposal that would...
By Alison J. Albee, J. Megan Woltz, Taylor Kemp, Emma Mays, Tylor M. Miller, Eric Fisher, Amanda Loutzenhiser
This case study focuses on the characteristic of tusklessness in the African elephant population of Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, to examine molecular and macroscopic aspects of evolution. Students are introduced to the plight of African eleph...
By Krystal A. Nunes
This case study focuses on wetlands in Ontario, Canada, to investigate factors impacting biodiversity. The narrative begins with an introduction to native plant species at varying levels of conservation concern. Students examine the life history trai...
By Blyssalyn V. Bieber, Gabrielle T. Welsh, Mayra C. Vidal, Whitley R. Lehto, Erin M. Lehmer, Robin M. Tinghitella, Shannon M. Murphy
Zoonotic diseases, or diseases that are transmitted from wildlife to humans, provide clear evidence that human health does not exist in a vacuum, but rather results from a complex interplay between humans, other organisms, and their shared environmen...
Can Birds “Keep Up” with Earlier Springs?
By Casey Youngflesh, John C. Withey
The timing of seasonal ecological events, known as phenology, plays an important role in how ecosystems function. As a result of rapid climatic change, many ecological events associated with spring are now occurring earlier. This has prompted concern...
Those Who Wish to Sing Always Find a Song
By Justin W. Merry
This interrupted case study examines the evolution of cricket stridulation in the Hawaiian Islands, where a silent, non-stridulating phenotype of Teleogryllus oceanicus has evolved and spread throughout Hawaiian populations in just over a decade in r...
By Kerianne M. Wilson
Poor nutrition in early life can have significant and long-lasting impacts to humans and persists in both developed and developing nations. Other species may also be susceptible to some of the same physiological impacts of malnutrition. While many fo...
Environmental Disaster in Honolulu Harbor
By Prescott C. Ensign
This case study illustrates the importance of decision-making based on sound science, business practices, engineering standards, and ethical principles. In 2013, approximately 1,400 tons of molasses spilled into Honolulu Harbor, wiping out sea life a...
Is It Hot in Here, or Is It Just Me?
By Amanda J. Chunco, Patricia A. Thomas-Laemont
Menopause is an evolutionary conundrum. Why would something evolve that reduces the number of potential offspring that an individual can have? And yet, even though rare, menopause not only exists, but has evolved multiple times in a few different spe...
By Margaret A. Holzer, Carrie A. Ferraro, Malin L. Pinsky, Rebecca L. Selden, Eva A. Papaioannou
This interrupted case study explores how climate change is impacting the distribution and abundance of fish species, how fishers and fishing communities are adapting to shifts in species ranges and abundances, and how we can effectively manage fish s...
The Stakeholders of Gorongosa National Park
By Andrea M.-K. Bierema, Sara D. Miller, Claudia E. Vergara
Working through this case study, students explore the intersection between scientific and information literacies and consider how authority (scientific or otherwise) is represented in information sources through examining stakeholders and how their v...
Bringing Mammoths Back from Extinction
By Andrea M.-K. Bierema, Sara D. Miller, Claudia E. Vergara
The focus of this case study is on the development of scientific and information literacies. Working on activities that address audience, purpose, language, authority, and use of evidence, students examine how the ways in which information sources ar...
Are Oxpeckers Friends or Foes?
By Andrea M.-K. Bierema
Symbiotic relationships are interactions between species that live closely with each other and are commonly separated into three types: parasitism, mutualism, and commensalism. Students are often under the impression that these types are distinct and...
By Ruth S. Bowers-Sword, Jack C. Doss, Bruce A. Wiggins
This interrupted case study focuses on a biological phenomenon known as temperature-dependent sex determination to guide students through the scientific method. Using the endangered green sea turtle, Chelonia mydas, as a model, students prepare for c...
By Emily Cornelius Ruhs, Cynthia J. Downs
This interrupted case study introduces students to resource-based trade-offs and immune-based trade-offs, and the implications of these trade-offs on the spread of disease. Students are first asked to interpret data on the energetically demandi...
By Tyler C. Leary, Whitney E. Smith, Tara T. Francis
Bear bile is a prized ingredient used for thousands of years in traditional Chinese medicine for its anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving effects, but the means by which bile is collected from live, captive bears has recently become a topic of contro...
Using the Scientific Method to Understand the Brilliant Colors of Male Jumping Spiders
By Michael E. Vickers, Lisa A. Taylor
This interrupted case study presents the work of biologists who are trying to understand the functions of bright color patterns in jumping spiders. It is designed to guide students through the steps of the scientific method, while also exposing them ...
Assessing Habitat Suitability for Squirrels on Campus
By Ivan A. Mendoza, Jason R. Courter
Squirrels are frequent and beloved residents of college campuses throughout the United States, but oftentimes less welcomed by campus maintenance officials who report squirrels nesting in buildings, interfering with airflow from heating and cooling u...
Equal Parts Sleeping and Eating
By Scott J. Donnelly
Every year during the foodless winter months, bears enter their den and lapse into a state of extended dormancy and slumber (called hibernation). For the next 130+ consecutive days they do not drink, eat, defecate, or urinate. Rarely do they die from...
By Thomas S. Nühse
Although rabies still causes thousands of deaths globally every year, it has essentially been eradicated from most industrialized countries. Part of the success story is due to an unusual project undertaken by the Swiss prompted by a series of large ...
The Grass is Greener in Kentucky
By Thomas S. Nühse
Kentucky 31 is a widely grown variety of tall fescue grass that owes its extreme stress resistance, but also its toxicity, to an endophytic fungus. It is difficult to decide where to place this symbiosis along the mutualism-parasitism spectrum. In th...
The Shifty Salmon of Auke Creek
By David A. Tallmon
Pacific salmon are culturally, ecologically, and economically important throughout their geographic range. They are also increasingly depleted and threatened with extinction. This interrupted case study in three parts focuses on issues surrounding mi...
By Ashlee E. Nelson, Sarah R. Sletten
This directed case study explores the bacteria Vibrio vulnificus and its impact on human health. The case is based on a true story of a woman who fell ill after eating raw oysters while visiting family in New Orleans during the month of August....
Boreal Forest Dynamics at the Hardwood Ecotone
By Charles J.W. Carroll, Miranda D. Redmond
This “clicker” case uses a handout and a PowerPoint presentation to guide students through the interpretation of three key traits of two dominant boreal species in the high elevation regions of northern New Hampshire to develop hypotheses concern...
By Aggie Veld, Emilie R. Janes
This case study takes the reader deep into the cloud forest of San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica. While searching for a destination for the best spring break ever, five students in an ecology class happen upon a story of sustainability that inspi...
Taking the Time to Understand the Uptick in Lyme
By Suann Yang
This clicker case study is based on the true story of Ella Buss, a young girl diagnosed with Lyme borreliosis (Lyme disease), one of the most frequently reported tick-borne diseases in the United States and other temperate regions of the world. Ella�...
Which Elephant Population Would You Protect?
By Andrea M.-K. Bierema
This case study has students analyze real population and climate data to address a problem in conservation. Many elephant populations exist in Africa, but if a conservation group had funding to supply a grant to just one population, which one should ...
By Kathleen A. Nolan
This case study examines the population dynamics of the horseshoe crab, which is sometimes described as a “living fossil.” Students are shown PowerPoint slides that are interspersed with clicker questions about the biology, life history strategie...
By Susan A. Weiner
This case study in comparative physiology explores the connections between physiology, evolution and behavior. Students assume the role of researchers who have discovered the body of a rare and poorly studied (fictional) monkey, Callicebus imagini. S...
By Christine H. Terry, Erin J. Friedman
This interrupted case study was written to help students understand the interplay and relatedness of metabolism in producers and consumers. The storyline is based on a conversation between two students who are home from college for a long weekend. Wh...
By Parks Collins, Jason Macrander
This interrupted case study tells the true story of Karl P. Schmidt, a herpetologist and museum curator who was bitten by a venomous snake in 1957. Like a true scientist, Schmidt recorded notes about his symptoms until the very end when he died. Stud...
Peppered Moths and the Industrial Revolution
By Avril M. Harder, Janna R. Willoughby, Jaqueline M. Doyle
This interrupted case study was written for students to gain a better understanding of evolutionary concepts and principles as they develop their skills in hypothesis creation, experimental design, and critical analysis of experimental assumptions. T...
By Janna R. Willoughby, Avril M. Harder, Jaqueline M. Doyle
This interrupted case study is based on a journal article that describes the rapid adaptation of a population (in this case, steelhead trout) in response to a shift in environmental conditions despite genome‐wide reductions in genetic diversity. Fi...
By Krista E. Slemmons
This interrupted case study introduces students to the complexity of understanding natural variation in ecosystems through time in the absence of long term data sets. In particular, students explore the interdisciplinary nature of ecology and examine...
Evolution by Natural Selection in Oldfield Mice
By Katherine S. LaCommare, Peter A. Van Zandt
The theory of evolution by natural selection is simple, elegant, and profound. Yet, a large number of undergraduate students including biology majors, medical students, and pre-service science teachers maintain a large set of misconceptions that inte...
By Dachin N. Frances, Sanja Hinić-Frlog
The federal governments in Canada and the United States have adopted vastly different positions regarding the conservation status of the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). This international issue provides students an opportunity to exa...
By Laura A. Schoenle, Cynthia J. Downs
This interrupted case study introduces two distinct, but not mutually exclusive, strategies for defending against parasites: resistance and tolerance. Students analyze and interpret research conducted on resistance and tolerance to gastrointestinal p...