JoinAll Case Studies
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Paul Seymour, Assistant Professor
By Clyde Freeman Herreid
This case study explores two of the major issues that confront new faculty when they experiment with a new method of teaching like case study teaching. The first issue is how to introduce the new method into the classroom successfully when both the i...
By Katayoun Chamany
In this case study on multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis, students consider ways in which to preserve health as a human right without subjecting already marginalized communities susceptible to the disease to further discrimination. Students lear...
By Peggy Brickman
This case is based on a lurid crime featured on the BBC program Crimewatch in December 2001 that was solved thanks to forensic DNA analysis. Students learn how the structure of DNA and the mechanism used by cells to duplicate DNA were critical to the...
War, Death, and Cognitive Dissonance
By Jamie G. McMinn
This case study explores cognitive dissonance theory, a theory proposed by psychologist Leon Festinger in 1956 to explain the tension that exists when peoples’ attitudes are incongruent with their behaviors. Students read a news article describing ...
By Bryan Hains, Dawn Hains, Mark Balschweid
In this case study, students are introduced to concepts and techniques in modern biotechnology, as well as the possible implications of this emerging science, by considering the possibility of in vitro cultured meat. Intended for use in a college-lev...
By Brent J.F. Hill
In this problem-based learning case, students read about a 41-year-old woman who is suffering from recurring headaches. Working in small groups, the students analyze a variety of information and then formulate a diagnosis. This case study was develop...
A Lake Runs Through It . . . Or Is It a River? Or Something Else?
By Christine A. Lai, Julio C. Rivera, Jr.
In the late 1990s, the town of Tempe, Arizona, proposed developing the dry riverbed of the Salt River into a lake that would become a recreational and economic focal point for the city as well as a potential tourist destination. The project presented...
Marketing Mostly Intangible Goods
By Jorge A. Santiago-Blay
This case study illustrates some of the common social and economic problems facing botanical gardens and arboreta today. The case describes a conversation between Angie and Suzie, two long-time staff members at an unnamed botanical garden. The women ...
By Barry Chess
In this interrupted case study, Greg and Olga, a young couple planning a family, have decided to see a genetic counselor because of a family history of genetic disease. Students construct a pedigree from the information presented in the case; then, o...
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...
Can Suminoe Oysters Save Chesapeake Bay?
By Valerie Nieman, Zhi-Jun Liu
This dilemma case explores the controversy over introducing non-native oysters to the Chesapeake Bay as a means of improving its ecological and economic health. Developed for use in an interdisciplinary doctoral program in energy and environmental st...
By Thomas A. Davis
The topic of this debate case, developed for a course in “Issues in Environmental Biology,” is clear-cutting, a controversial method of harvesting and regenerating trees in which all trees are cleared from a site. Students debate the issue, assum...
Saving Superman: Ethics and Stem Cell Research
By Doug M. Post (rr), Doug Knutson
This case explores the political and ethical issues associated with stem cell research. Students read the case describing Christopher Reeve’s accident and injuries and his advocacy for stem cell research along with background readings on stem cells...
By Thomas A. Davis
In this case, developed for a course in Issues in Environmental Biology, students learn that water samples collected from a local river show elevated levels of fecal bacteria and atrazine, one of the most commonly used herbicides in the United States...
By Doug Knutson, Doug M. Post (rr)
This case was developed to teach first-year medical students about medical ethics as they apply to patient communication. Students receive an introductory lecture covering the basics of giving bad news and then are asked to apply what they have learn...
By Doug M. Post (rr), Doug Knutson
This case study on physician-assisted suicide is used in a medical ethics course. The case itself is a short article published in 1991 in the New England Journal of Medicine in which Dr. Timothy E. Quill described his care for a patient suffering fro...
Why Does Grandpa Ignore Grandma?
By Benjamin F. Timson, Scott D. Zimmerman
Carla, a first semester graduate student in audiology, has noticed that her grandfather appears to be having trouble hearing what her grandmother says. Other people in the family can’ help but notice it too as it becomes a source of increasing aggr...
But It's Just a Bottle of Water
By Lindsey May, Jessica Kotke, Charles R. Bomar
Bottled water, popular among students, is big business even though issues surrounding it related to health and safety as well as its environmental impact have stirred up controversy. Designed for an introductory non-majors environmental science cours...
By Eric Ribbens
This case study is designed to teach introductory biology majors about the role of the pituitary in controlling hormones. It could easily be applied or modified to fit a variety of other courses, including a non-majors introductory biology course or ...
By Doug Knutson, Doug M. Post (rr)
This case was developed to teach first-year medical students the basics of medical ethics. It describes a situation in which a family physician is treating a teenage patient for a sexually transmitted disease. Based on information she gives him, he i...
By Kristen L.W. Walton
This interrupted case study follows the declining health of an infant who suffers from recurrent infections and finally is diagnosed with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). The case was developed for use in an undergraduate upper-level immunolo...
The Story of Dinosaur Evolution
By Jeffrey Scott Coker, Jimmie D. Agnew
In this case study, students write their own “evolution stories” based on information taken from a review article by Paul Sereno on the evolution of dinosaurs published in Science magazine. In the process, they learn to distinguish between the th...
By David F. Dean (rr)
“Jason Hendrix,” a 21-year-old student majoring in economics, is injured in a serious motorcycle accident while on spring break in Florida. Students read the short case scenario, which provides a brief clinical history of the patient and a ...
A Case of Cerebrovascular Accident
By David F. Dean (rr)
"Samuel Dexter" is 52 years old, overweight, and a heavy smoker. He wakes one morning with weakness on his right side. When he attempts to walk to the bathroom, he stumbles and then falls. His wife, who suspects he has suffered a stroke, calls ...
A Case of Neurocardiogenic Syncope
By David F. Dean (rr)
“Allison Jacobson” is a 19-year-old sophomore majoring in pre-med. The past few weeks she has been studying for finals. She feels tired, even though she knows she has been getting enough sleep at night. She also has frequent headaches, and severa...
By Robin Pals-Rylaarsdam
This PBL case on Intelligent Design was written for freshman biology majors at a Christian liberal arts college. Students read about the claims and actions of proponents of Intelligent Design as they work for its inclusion in the high school science ...
The Ecology of Opuntia Fragilis (Nuttall) Haworth
By Eric Ribbens
This interrupted case is based on the author's own personal research on the fragile prickly pear cactus in Stearns County, Minnesota. The data described is a product of the work of several undergraduate students at St. Johns University, which partial...
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 Dan Johnson
When chronic pain forces a top student to withdraw from college, biology instructor Dr. Sharpe learns that medications (in this case, Vioxx) may be removed from the market for many reasons, including safety concerns. As the case unfolds, students lea...
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 ...
Rising Temperatures, Differing Viewpoints
By Christopher Hollister
In this case, students work in small groups to analyze and critically evaluate the often political nature of news stories. The case was developed from two newspaper articles published in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal about the release of...
By Wendy Heck-Grillo, Andrea Novicki, Brian Rybarczyk
Since caffeine is a widely used substance, especially by college age students, this case on the effects of caffeine on the human body serves as a real-world connection to many students’ lives. The case is divided into sections covering background i...
By Mary Rose Grant
Frank and Joe are 24-year-old fraternal twins who share similar interests, including cycling. The brothers decide to attempt their first long-distance bicycling trip, retracing the journey of early American explorers Lewis and Clark to the Northwest....
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 Clyde Freeman Herreid
This interrupted case is based on a 2005 article in Nature written by three scientists from the Imperial College London that deals with the issue of sexual vs. asexual reproduction and their relative merits—a question that has bedeviled biologists ...
By Kathleen A. Cornely
In the weeks following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, anthrax-laced envelopes were mailed to individuals in government and the news media. Thousands were treated for exposure, and five people wer...
By Teresa M. Schulz
On the night of March 26, 2003, a brilliant fireball exploded and fragmented over south suburban Chicago, hammering houses and sidewalks with meteorites. Many people witnessed the event and collected the precious stones. This is the story about the m...
By Clyde Freeman Herreid
The discovery of the platypus had the scientific world in an uproar and kept it tantalized for decades. Here was the strangest animal ever seen. How was one to classify it? It had fur. So, was it a mammal? But then what to make of its duck-like bill?...
By Laurie A. Parendes, Scott H. Burris
By simulating a public hearing, this case study requires that students sift through and organize information on pesticide use presented to them from the perspective of different stakeholders. The case asks a fundamental question, Can we do without pe...
A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed
By William H. Cliff, Ann W. Wright
This directed case study was designed to help students strengthen their understanding of the transport of oxygen in the blood through an analysis of the pathophysiology of a common, real-world problem, namely, carbon monoxide poisoning. The case was ...