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In my honor’s biology course I introduced my students to case studies throughout the semester and challenged them to design their own. The students worked in groups to develop, write, and then teach their case studies. To facilitate the development of the cases, I divided the assignment into six parts: choosing a topic, creating an annotated bibliography, developing an initial plan, writing a rough draft, producing a final version, and teaching the case study. Each group faced different challenges. Some lacked in initial creativity in choosing a topic, others struggled to convert information from scientific research to a case study format, while still others had issues determining whether sources were credible. However, other groups excelled in these areas. I was particularly surprised by the imagination that a few groups showed. I plan to continue this project, as feedback from students was overwhelmingly positive. From my experience, I plan to make three significant adjustments. First, I will make the project goals clear from the beginning of the semester, and give students extra incentive by explaining that if their cases are good they may be submitted for publication. Second, I will add peer-review to the process in order to help the students incite creativity in each other. Third, I will have the students teach their cases to first-semester biology recitation sections. This way each group will have time to present their full case and this will hopefully excite students in the first year class about the prospect of developing a case study the following semester.

Conclusions

Student-designed case studies: challenges and pleasant surprises

Dr. Ellen M. Wisner New Jersey Institute of Technology

Acknowledgements

I was most impressed by the creativity that some of the groups showed. This was especially true with some of the dialogue that several groups created. Below is an example of dialogue from one group’s case on coloration in guppies.

Part 2 - What Causes Their Color? Tommy’s mom replied, “What an intriguing question! Perhaps one of the sales associates may have an answer.” His mom found a sales associate standing by the birds section, but he directed the two of them over to the pet store owner, who used to work as an ecologist. “Excuse me, sir,” Tommy’s mom began. “My son and I were just looking at the guppies, and we couldn’t believe how beautiful the guppies’ bright orange color was! Do you think you could tell us more about why they’re so bright?” The pet store owner smiled. “That’s a good question! I was actually just reading an article about this on National Geographic the other day. How about I explain how the male guppies are orange first?” The owner walked over to the guppies aisle and picked up a container with a male guppy. “Male guppies become orange-spotted when they are exposed to testosterone, and do not develop orange spots when testosterone isn’t present.” He then picked up a container with a female guppy, which was not as brightly colored as the male guppy. “On the other hand, females don’t become orange even with testosterone,” (Jayasooriya et al. 2002).  “Wow, he just said so many big words I don’t understand!” thought Tommy. Oblivious, the owner continued, “Testosterone regulates the synthesis of pigments like carotenoid and red pteridine, which cause the orange spots. So this might explain the appearance of orange spots in the guppies,” (Jayasooriya et al. 2002).  Questions:3. In natural environments, why might some guppies be exposed to more levels of testosterone than other guppies?4. Why does testosterone affect the males, but not the females?5. What might a more orange color signal to a female?

I am thankful to New Jersey Institute of Technology, the Science Case Network, Clyde Herreid, my mentor through the SCN New Case Fellow Program, and my Honors Foundations of Ecology and Evolution students who worked hard on producing many excellent cases.

Abstract

Student Feedback“It was insightful, and it was fun going full circle because in the beginning we had no idea how to do a case study and in the end we did come

up with a finished product. So it was great”

“Writing a case allowed us to use our skills that we acquired in doing research as well as

working as a group and involved a significant amount of work. I like the case study idea. After all, it is nice to be able to write one for the class

to read after reading so many throughout the year.”

“Yes, the case study was helpful in that it allowed us to zoom in and focus on a specific

topic of our choice.”

The AssignmentIn order to help guide the students in development of their case

studies, the project was divided into 6 steps outlined below.

Challenges Potential Solutions

Topic Selection:Too broad of a topicTopic unoriginal or already has a case written about it

1) Include more examples of case studies throughout semester to give students a better idea of how specific a topic should be.

2) Add in a second meeting to discuss topic selection.

Formatting / Style:Some students felt uncomfortable or confused with the case

study format. For example, one rough draft was written as a research paper.

Students struggled to write leading questions for their cases. Many of the questions they wrote didn’t challenge the reader.

1) Choose an example case study as a “template” to follow. Originally I did not do this because I did not want to limit their creativity, but many groups needed more structure.

2) Add in a peer review stage to allow those students who understand the assignment to help other groups.

Credible Sources:At least one group was unable to identify which sources were

credible. They wrote their case based on incorrect information they got from a non-scientific website.

1) Add in a discussion of primary literature, including both what it is, and where to fine sources.

2) Stress the importance of credible sources throughout the project.

Final Presentation of Case Studies:Because of time constraints each group was unable to present

their whole case.Students in the class did not always pay attention to the

presentations.

1) In the future students will teach their cases to the freshman biology class recitation sections. This will allow the groups more time to present their cases and each recitation section will only sit through one case and so will be less likely to lose interest.

Pleasant surprises

SummaryOverall, this project was extremely successful. It was well-liked by students, the final products were of high quality, students gained a deeper understanding of their chosen topic, and students were proud of their final products. The biggest drawback in implementing this project was the time it took to help the students design their cases. Students are not use to this type of writing assignment and need lots of guidance. I had students work in groups, which alleviated some of the time commitment, as I had fewer cases to review, and also some groups worked well together and answered their fellow group members questions about the process. I plan to continue to include this project in my class with the modifications mentioned. Hopefully in the future, I will be able to also publish a few of these cases with my students, so that others will have access to them.

Students Anmol Mittal, Katarina Jevtic and Kenneth Ly before their final case study presentation.

1. Choose a topic• Each group submitted three

potential topics which were then discussed during individual group meetings

• Suggested places to get topic ideas included Science Daily and other science news sources

2. Collect research• Each group collected a minimum

of 4 peer reviewed papers on their topic

• Groups developed annotated bibliographies for these sources

Extra Credit Challenge: Students could earn bonus points if they included a supplement to their case study that modified

it to be teachable to a large lecture course.

3. Initial plan• Each group described learning

goals for their case and a plan for the organization of their case

• Plan was reviewed by instructor and extensive feedback was given to students

4. Rough draft• Each group turned in an

ungraded rough draft that included teaching notes for their case

• Most groups turned in a near-complete draft

5. Final version• Final versions included the

written case study, teaching notes, and an answer key

6. Presentation• Each group had 20 minutes to

explain the rationale and goals of their case and then go through one or two parts of their case with the class.