JoinAll Case Studies
The cases alone are freely accessible. A subscription is required for access to teaching notes and answer keys.
In keyword search, list the criteria you would like to find cases. Multiple criteria can be listed separated by commas (i.e. directed, high school)
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
Selection on a Case by Case Basis
By Adam R. Irvine, Eva S. Horna-Lowell, Mathew J. Driscoll, Emily D. Broder
This "clicker case" gives students an opportunity to apply their understanding of three different types of selection (directional, stabilizing, and disruptive) to a variety of model systems. The case describes each type of selection in detail, presen...
By David E. Gammon
In this case study, students participate in a game in which they assume the roles of various stakeholders in a proposed oil and gas project in southeastern Peru at a meeting that takes place in 1998 in Cusco, Peru. Ultimately one ...
The Demise of the Forest People
By Katherine A. Kurth, Tomika M. Haller, Annalisa L. Sharkey
In this case study, the complexity of the Malaysian palm oil industry is examined through the perspective of various stakeholders, namely, villagers, corporations, orangutans, smallholders, conservationists, and an average consumer. Students learn ab...
Could Grazing Be Dangerous? Ask the Cows!
By Kevin Pyatt, Michelle C. Pyatt, Michael I. Rule
This case study introduces important issues related to invasive species and noxious weeds that have particular ecological and agricultural importance. The realistic storyline follows a rancher, Elmer, who has recently purchased a 180-acre parcel of l...
Unsustainable Use of the High Plains Aquifer
By Christine M. Carson, Casey A. Pennock
This case spotlights Great Plains water shortages by focusing on the High Plains Aquifer. This groundwater reservoir provides nearly a third of groundwater used for irrigation in the heartland of the United States and is linked to surface flows (e.g....
By David W. Kelley
This case study reviews the hydrologic cycle and uses a water balance equation to examine the hydrology of White Bear Lake, a 2,531-acre natural water body near St. Paul, Minnesota. Since 2004, lake water levels have fallen five feet below their ordi...
Responding to a Changing Climate
By Christopher J. Javornik, Akasha M. Faist
This case study uses a jigsaw activity to introduce students to four specific plant responses to climate change: elevational range shifts, phenology shifts, community shifts, and changes in biodiversity. Students become "experts" on one of these resp...
Indigenous Knowledge and the Search for Medicine
By Angela C. Oviedo, Patrick R. Field, Daniela J. Shebitz
This case study is based on a real scenario in which a high-profile ethnobotanical study in Chiapas, Mexico, ended when local and international organizations accused the managing researchers of biopiracy. Students will explore how the Maya Internatio...
By Jasmine D. Edgren, Erica F. Kosal
This case study was written for an introductory course for biology majors who are first learning about embryonic development. The case is composed of several parts and involves a storyline about a team of researchers who find frogs and eggs in bamboo...
By Ann T.S. Taylor
The protagonist of this two-day flipped case study, “Maria,” has two problems. She doesn’t like it when the apple slices in her lunch turn brown, and she needs to find a project for her biology class that includes molecular biology, preferably ...
By Suzanne R. Carpenter, Richard H. Wallace
Currently there is considerable confusion surrounding the use of the term "organic" as applied to food and other consumer products, but within the agriculture industry the term has a well-defined meaning related to the practices that are allowed in t...
By Tracy J. Terry
The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, provides a compelling context for understanding the importance of each of the major classes of chemical reactions: precipitation reactions, acid-base reactions, and oxidation-reduction reactions. Each of these rea...
Kudz-who? and Other Questions of Invasive Species
By Parks Collins
It is now well known that non-native species have the potential to be harmful to an ecosystem, but that wasn't always the case, and getting rid of non-native invasive species is usually a difficult task. This brief, interrupted case study tells the s...
By Celeste A. Leander, Pamela Kalas
This case study focuses on the intersection of defining a scientific species and defining a legal species. The compelling story of Lolita, an orca whale in captivity, is used to highlight the legal significance of species declaration. Students will w...
Why Can’t We Build a Biosphere?
By Kathy Gallucci
This case study is designed to help students learn about the ecosystem services of Earth (Biosphere 1) by examining the challenges faced by the designers who tried to replicate its components in Biosphere 2. In 1991, four men and four women entered B...
By Sandra J. Connelly
This flipped case study is formatted as a PowerPoint presentation that uses group experimentation to encourage active learning in a large science classroom. There are options for using either wet bench experimentation or an online simulation, dependi...
By Michelle M. Homan
This case study presents a realistic example of drinking water contamination within a fictional local community and leads students through an abbreviated human health risk assessment. Students are provided background information about the extent of t...
By Orianna Carter
This case study addresses several concepts related to water hypoxia including physical laws governing dissolved oxygen levels and impacts to living systems during hypoxia. A survey of different factors causing reduced oxygen saturation levels on smal...
By Mariela Cruz Calderón, Annie Prud’homme-Genereux
Why is the North American population of monarch butterflies declining? In 1999, a study published in the journal Nature suggested that a variety of genetically modified corn was killing these iconic butterflies. While it was later shown that the cond...
By Karen K. Bernd, Cindy D. Hauser, Kristie L. Foley
The first day of class is often a reading of the syllabus, even when active learning approaches are used throughout the rest of the term. This interrupted case uses the first day to model the expectations of a course that uses case method approaches....
By Tracie M. Addy, Catherine E. LePrevost, Courtney L. McGinnis
This case study was inspired by a real-life scenario, and follows the story of Roberto, a migrant farmworker whose health is impacted by the usage of pesticides on a farm. With the help of a health care provider, Roberto becomes aware of the ef...
By Teresa C. Weglarz
This interrupted case study tells the story of Miles, a freshman in college, who volunteers to help with the composting program on campus. Miles is excited about composting but his mother is hesitant to try it at home. Miles learns about the key ingr...
By Amanda J. Chunco, Jennifer K. Uno
This case study focuses on the relationship between the microbiome (the suite of species that live in or on the human body) and autoimmune and allergic diseases. At the center of the case is Amelia, a young woman living with Crohn's disease. As the c...
By Thomas A. Davis
To what extent should corn be used for the production of ethanol? Are we better off producing corn for food or producing corn for fuel? This case study uses a technique called "intimate debate" (also known as "constructive controversy") in order to e...
Mini Cases on Choosing Appropriate Statistical Tests for Ecological Data
By Alyssa M. Gleichsner, Elizabeth A. Flaherty
This set of mini cases on the ecology of eastern cottontail rabbits is designed to give students practical experience using statistics in a scientific context. Given a dataset and experimental design, groups of students are asked to play the part of ...
By Christine R. Dahlin
This case study was developed to teach students the importance of understanding the behavior of wildlife, explore the difficulty in making management decisions when the public is invested in a species, and to help students develop critical thinking a...
The Mystery of the Missing Martens
By Elizabeth A. Flaherty, Carolyn A. Eckrich, Merav Ben-David
This interrupted case study introduces basic modeling to investigate a decline in an American marten population on an island in Southeast Alaska. Two summer field technicians working on a long-term field ecology project for one of their professors no...
By Claudia Stein, Eleanor A. Pardini
In this case study students are provided with information for piecing together the story of how forest fragmentation and biodiversity loss can affect the risk of Lyme disease transmission to humans. The case introduces the dilution effect, a widely a...
The Never-Ending Contamination
By Lior M. Burko
This case study discusses a possible national security crisis of a terrorist group stealing radioactive materials in an attempt to build and detonate a dirty bomb over a densely populated metropolitan area. Specifically, this case discusses radioacti...
By Susan E. Gass, Laurie S. Eberhardt
This interrupted case study, designed for an introductory biology or environmental science course, introduces students to the complexity of ecosystems by examining changes in trophic interactions and abiotic factors in a freshwater ecosystem as a res...
Cancer Cluster or Coincidence?
By Jaclyn E. McLean, Ram S. Veerapaneni
In this interrupted case study students analyze the complexities surrounding identification and confirmation of cancer clusters. The case challenges students to consider the evidence from two different perspectives; a local family physician represent...
By Akasha M. Faist
This case study in restoration ecology utilizes two peer reviewed articles that ask a similar question about the effects of grazing in temporary wetlands, yet the articles have different conclusions about these effects. Students are challenged ...
Unintended Consequences of Plant Domestication on Plant-Insect Interactions
By Glenna M. Malcolm, Yolanda H. Chen
This case study investigates how plant domestication sometimes produces unintended consequences for plant-insect interactions. The narrative follows a boy in middle school, Podrick, who goes on a class field trip and notices that there are no caterpi...
Seeing the Forest for the Trees
By Elizabeth A. Flaherty, Carolyn A. Eckrich, Merav Ben-David
This case study has for its central theme the importance of tree size in both ecology and natural resource management and is designed to introduce components of forest management and policy, the importance of ecological relationships, and the challen...
By Scott Turner
This case study explores the controversy surrounding Yellowstone bison (Bison bison) and the relationship between wildlife management and pluralist democracy. In the late 1960s Yellowstone National Park suspended the policy of strictly managing bison...
By Ashley E. Rhodes
Loss of species richness is often due to anthropogenic activity. The global decline of amphibians is one such example. This case study examines the impact of road deicing agents on amphibians living near bridges and roads treated heavily with salt du...
By Vandana A. Gudi
This case study presents the fictional tale of two neighboring towns that have recently experienced a growth boom and are now suffering the environmental consequences. The case provides an opportunity to explore a wide variety of anthropogenic causes...
The Perilous Plight of the Pika
By Fleur M. Ferro
This interrupted case study addresses several concepts related to climate change and its effect on the American pika. Often called an indicator species for climate change, the pika has a unique set of variables specific to its environment. Factors su...
Sweet Beets: Making Sugar Out of Thin Air
By Sarah R. Sletten
This directed case study introduces students to photosynthesis and illustrates how biology plays a vital role in the carbon cycle and the conversion of energy. Set in North Dakota along the Red River of the North, the case uses the sugar beet (Beta v...
By Joshua D. Hartman, Jack F. Eichler
This problem-based case study presents recent advancements in the development and application of technologies geared towards harnessing sunlight for the production of hydrogen from water. A PowerPoint presentation introduces the topic with a New York...