In this "clicker case," a three-year-old girl gets into the medicine cabinet and ingests an unknown number of aspirin tablets. Her brother calls 911 and the girl is taken to a nearby hospital, where she is treated. The case is used to discuss the Law of Mass Action, chemical equilibrium and equilibrium constants, pH, and weak acids and buffers in the context of medical management of a life-threatening emergency. It is called a "clicker" case because it is designed to be presented in a class that uses personal response systems, or "clickers." The case is presented via a series of PowerPoint slides (~400KB) punctuated by multiple-choice questions, which the students answer using their clickers. It could be adapted for use without these technologies. The case is suitable for use in an introductory biology course where integration with biologically relevant chemistry is an important course objective. It could also be used in a chemistry course.

Applet demonstrating the concept of aliasing

This "clicker case" is a modified version of a case originally published in the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science case collection in 2006, "Chemical Eric: Dealing with the Disintegration of Central Control," by the same author. The case is designed to teach introductory biology majors about the role of the pituitary in controlling hormones. It presents an actual case in which the pituitary is seriously disrupted. By examining the various effects of pituitary disruption and tracing them back to their hormonal causes, students gain an understanding of the role of the pituitary in controlling a variety of hormones and in the cascade of effects triggered by high-level pituitary hormones. The case is formatted as a PowerPoint presentation (~7.7MB) punctuated by questions that students answer in class using personal response systems ("clickers"). The case could be used with slight modifications in a human physiology class or a more advanced animal systems course.

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 summer. In her quest to determine why the fish disappear, Sue learns about both the biological and physical forces that produce, maintain, and eventually dissipate the hypoxic zone. The case introduces students to the marine food web, the aquatic microbial loop, the impact of exogenous nutrients, and the physical forces that affect oxygen content and water stratification. It could be used in introductory biology or ecology courses or in an oceanography course.

The overall purpose of this case study is to teach students to be skeptical of scientific claims, particularly those that are sensational and fall outside the boundaries of normal scientific explanation. Students read the case and then evaluate information to determine whether they believe there is enough scientific evidence to confirm the existence of extrasensory perception. The case was developed for use in an introductory science or psychology course, but would also be appropriate for courses in human biology in which the nervous system is explored.

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 teach the process of science. The present case is a modernized version of Fisher's story and concerns the ability of a woman to distinguish between cups of coffee with milk added first or second. The case is enhanced by a demonstration in which students distinguish between 2% and skim milk, brands of bottled water, or brands of soda.

Through two classroom demos, students are introduced to the basic properties of lasers through various mediums. In the Making an Electric Pickle demonstration, students see how cellular tissue is able to conduct electricity, and how this is related to various soaking solutions. In the Red/Green Lasers through Different Mediums demonstration, students see the properties of lasers, especially diffraction, in various mediums. Follow-up lecture material introduces students to the mechanisms by which lasers function and relates these functions to the properties of light. In the associated activity, student teams research specific laser types and present their findings to the class.