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
By Joan Sharp
This "clicker case" is modified from Martin Kelly's case study "As the Worm Turns: Speciation and the Apple Maggot Fly," also in our collection. Classic cases of incipient speciation such as the apple maggot fly and the hawthorn maggot fly are an exc...
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 Erin Barley, Joan Sharp
This “clicker case” explores the questions of when hominins lost their body hair and began wearing clothing by examining the surprising phylogeny of human head, body, and pubic lice. Students are led through the scientific process as they are ask...
You Are Not the Mother of Your Children
By Stephen R. Cronin
This case is based on a true story of a woman whose children were almost taken from her because her DNA profile indicated that she was not the mother of her children. The interrupted case study follows the woman, her lawyer, and a research biologist ...
By Elaine S. Chapman (rr)
Based on a real incident, this case features an older woman who has been injured on a ski slope. Her classic knee injury, often referred to as the “Terrible Triad of O’Donahue,” is complicated by her age, the altitude, and possible hypothermia....
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 Robert Leaf, Brian R. Murphy
In this case, students read about a biologist who needs to determine how to analyze age-at-length data, a common situation in fisheries biology. The fictional Dr. Latimer is tasked with fitting non-linear models to the data, and the case develops as ...
By Courtney E. Quinn, John E. Quinn
This PowerPoint case (~2.4 MB) was developed for an undergraduate, non-majors course in conservation biology. It explores the controversy surrounding land purchases in the Patagonia region of Chile and Argentina. According to local indigenous peoples...
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 Jacinth Maynard, Mary Puterbaugh Mulcahy, Daniel Kermick
In the 1920s, biologist and statistician Ronald Fisher met a woman who claimed she could taste whether a cup of tea was prepared by adding milk before or after the tea. Fisher’s essay about the tea party may be one of the first cases published to t...
By Thomas Horvath
In this “clicker case,” students learn about evolution, speciation, and natural selection as well as interpret phylogenies as they apply to the Canidae family. The case is based on the idea that the domestication of the dog was not likely an inte...
By Maureen Knabb
This “clicker case” introduces students to a rare genetic disease in which an enzyme is deficient in a critical metabolic pathway—the first step in aerobic respiration. Based on a real-life situation, the case challenges students to make connec...
By Melanie K. Rathburn, Karina J. Baum
Many students take the availability of water for granted. This case study, which focuses on the Cochabamba water revolt in Bolivia, is designed to encourage students to think about water as a limited natural resource. Students learn about the limited...
By Phoebe R. Stubblefield, Elizabeth Scharf
Students explore the issues involved in investigating and reporting on a scatter of skeletal remains to the police in this case study. In addition, the case teaches students about skeletal identification and the quantification of skeletal eleme...
By Karen E. Bledsoe
When Mitchell reveals that he is going on a low-carb diet, Janine tries to talk him out of it, telling him that he’s too thin as it is and doesn’t need to loose any weight. Designed to accompany a nonmajors unit on human anatomy and physiology, t...
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 Kathleen Archer, Lauren Sahl
This interrupted case study focuses on the seasonal hypoxic area in the Gulf of Mexico known as the Dead Zone. It follows Sue, a college student, whose father is a commercial fisherman affected by the lack of fish in his usual fishing grounds in the ...
By Catherine Dana Santanello
Blake is sick. With his background in the sciences and a little help from the Internet, he should be able to do a self-diagnosis. Or can he? As the case unfolds, students follow the course of Blake's illness. Part I of the cas...
By Annie Prud’homme-Genereux
In this intimate debate case, students consider whether to support the development and use of Golden Rice as a means to alleviate vitamin A deficiency in the developing world. Since many of the arguments typically raised against genetically modified ...
By Susan Fredstrom
When Jill’s roommate Nancy starts using a nutritional product to improve her energy and lose weight, Jill goes searching for information about it. Her search leads her to nutrition labels, websites and, as she digs deeper, the results of scientific...
By Elizabeth Clark
In this case study, students hear arguments on both sides of a debate over wildlife management and must integrate ethical and scientific perspectives to formulate their own opinions. The case as written is most appropriate for an environmental ethics...
By Antoinette Miller
This series of mini cases focuses on language deficits (aphasias) and their likely organic causes (problems in specific brain areas). Students read one of the six cases, which are based on actual cases reported in the literature, and connect the symp...
By Mark L. Kuhlmann
In this case study, students examine data from a number of published studies of the effects of Pacific salmon on freshwater and riparian ecosystems. The case focuses on the interesting phenomenon of spawning salmon acting as nutrient conveyor belts, ...
By Juanita Constible, Luke Sandro, Richard E. Lee, Jr. (rr)
As the carbon dioxide concentration of our atmosphere increases and our climate warms, the hay fever season seems to be getting longer and more severe. In this case study, students assume the a role of a public relations specialist contracted to comm...
By Brahmadeo Dewprashad
This case study was developed to engage students by making connections between core concepts in organic chemistry and the health-promoting chemical, curcumin, found in turmeric. The case is in the form of a dialogue between a couple about the surpris...
By Frank Bowman, Brian Tande
At Thanksgiving dinner, Uncle Bubba and Uncle Bill are arguing over whose house is more expensive to heat or cool: Bubba's Georgia home in the summer or Bill’s North Dakota home in winter. Student teams play the role of Bubba and Bill's niece or ne...
The Physiology of a Neurodegenerative Disease
By Christine M. Fleet
In this case, a young woman learns that her uncle has been diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. She talks with her fellow graduate students to try to better understand the physiology of the disorder, along with the medical and personal implications...
Joe Joins the Circus (or Elephant Love)
By Jennifer Feenstra
In this interrupted case study, students cover concepts and terms related to classical and operant conditioning as they read about how "Joe," an animal trainer for a circus, trains the two elephants in his charge. Joe sets about his task using concep...
The Case of the Sexually Arrested Orangutans
By Susan B. Chaplin, Laura J. Baumgartner
This case examines the hormonal control of the development and maturation to adulthood and the role of stress hormones in that developmental process. The case was adapted from results summarized in Maggioncalda and Sapolsky’s (2002) article in Scie...
The Case of the Druid Dracula: Clicker Case Version
By Norris Armstrong, Terry Platt, Peggy Brickman
This “clicker case” is a modified version of another case in our collection by the same name. It uses a PowerPoint presentation (~3MB) to present the case, which is punctuated by multiple-choice questions that students answer in class using hand-...
By Susan Bandoni Muench
This historical case study describes the story of John Snow’s discovery of water-borne transmission of cholera in 19th-century London. Designed for use in a Global Health class, the case explores cholera outbreaks and their causes as well as models...
Driving Can Be Dangerous to Your Health
By Philip J. Stephens
In this interrupted case study, students read about an older woman named Barbara who becomes ill after driving with her husband 19 hours from Florida to visit their son’s family. Barbara experiences an asthma attack and then more serious breathing ...
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 Troy R. Nash
This directed case study involves two “stories,” each one concerned with some aspect of osmosis in living cells. Part I is centered around the effects of a hypertonic environment on plant cells, while Part II focuses on the effects of a hypotonic...
By Susan Nava-Whitehead, Joan-Beth Gow
This case study examines the Salem witch trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts, in the late 1600s. It is designed to provide students with an opportunity to analyze and critique data and help them understand the scientific method. Originally...
By William D. Rogers, Thomas Horvath
Designed for high school and college-level introductory biology courses, the goal of this "clicker case" is to get students to think about what it means for something to be alive by defining the characteristics of living organisms and applying these ...
By Richard C. Stewart, Ann C. Smith, Patricia A. Shields
In this interrupted case study, students assume the role of a microbiologist working at a chemical company that makes polyurethane. When a collection unit designed to pick up extraterrestrial (ET) samples (nicknamed ELVIS) returns to earth, much of t...
By Antoinette Miller
This series of mini cases focuses on the cortical areas associated with vision and visual perception. Each case depicts a breakdown in visual perception that may be traced to damage in an area or areas of the visual system and is based upon an actual...
By Susan Behrens, Cindy Mercer
The focus of this case study is the way differing views on native fluency and bilingualism have an impact on writing instruction in colleges. In the case, students read about the high school and college experiences of a young woman who moved to the U...
Take Two and Call Me in the Morning
By Peggy Brickman
In this “clicker case,” students read about a college student who becomes sick. As they set out to identify the cause of the illness, students learn about the differences between viruses, prokaryotes, and eukaryotes in order to decide which organ...