This collection of mini cases on cardiac function challenges students to explore the relationship between heart rate, stroke volume, and cardiac output, and to investigate some of the factors that alter each component, including preload, contractility, and afterload.  In the first mini case, “Carl” experiences shortness of breath caused by rupture of chordae tendineae; students evaluate the effect of altered afterload on his end systolic volume, cardiac output, and heart rate.  In the second, “Sofia” is seven months pregnant, and her increased blood volume affects preload, heart rate, and stroke volume. In the third, students consider a cadaver heart with obvious signs of heart failure that affected the donor’s ventricular volumes and therefore stroke volume and cardiac output.  Each mini case requires students to consider how various factors contribute to changes in ejection fraction. These cases, either together or alone, are appropriate for use in a two-semester anatomy and physiology course taken by nursing, nutrition, athletic training, pre-occupational therapy, and other health majors in their first or second year; they could also be adapted for a similar course at the advanced placement (AP) high school level.