The Flexibility of Case Methods Margaret Waterman Southeast Missouri State University 11 th Annual Conference on Case Study Teaching in Science September

The Flexibility of Case Methods

Margaret Waterman

Southeast Missouri State University

11th Annual Conference on Case Study Teaching in Science

September 24-25, 2010

The National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science

University at Buffalo

http://bioquest.org/icblMargaret A. Waterman, 2010

More than 20,000 rural Native residents in Alaska live in communities without running water and where homes, local government offices, commercial buildings, and even medical clinics use plastic buckets for toilets -euphemistically called "honey buckets." ... spillages have led to the outbreak of epidemic diseases such as Hepatitis A.

(An Alaskan Challenge: Native Village Sanitation, US Congress, 1994)

Using Cases Flexibly: Goodbye Honeybuckets!

Lana McNeil Northwest Campus College of Rural Alaska

John Kepaaq is a member of the Tribal Council of his Alaskan village. John wants to be sure that the sewage system proposed for the village is appropriate for the cold temperatures and safe for the tundra environment.

Cases can be used to meet many objectives

• To assess knowledge and skills – all cases

• To develop global and multicultural perspectives

• To initiate investigations

• To introduce new technologies

• To emphasize quantitative skills

• To introduce tools

• To see value of interdisciplinarity

http://bioquest.org/icbl Margaret A. Waterman, 2010

Objective: Pre Assessment

PBL can be used as a starting place for assessing what the learner already knows.

Example: Dr. McNeil’s Case: let her find out what students already knew about sanitation in their locale.


Objective: Assessment

Resources for each student:• prepared slide of suspect plant material• list of back yard plants by gardener


The following take home exam was based on a mini case in which a 14 week-old puppy that “chews on everything” was found ill in the back yard.


Submit a memo reporting your findings as a forensics specialist:

Provide an identification of the plant material with evidence to support choices:

• root, stem, or leaf• dicot or monocot• herbaceous or woody



:


Write a short letter to the pet owner advising the family to remove the poisonous plant from their back yard:

Provide a description of the plant as it would look during flowering and be sure to include:

• common and scientific name• habitat preference• danger to humans










Kujira

Teruko sat with her friend Sean at lunch and enthusiastically described her brother’s wedding and reception in Japan. “The family hired special chefs who prepared some amazing dishes. My favorite was the kujira.”

“What’s kujira?” Sean asked.

“It’s whale meat,” Teruko replied. When Sean made a face, she continued, “It’s delicious really. Better than this pepperoni pizza.”

Objective: Multidisciplinary Connections


Now it was Teruko who made a face. “How do they know it’s not whale meat?” she asked.

Some biotech test,” Sean replied with a shrug.

Isn’t whale meat illegal? I read there’s a huge black market and people pay up to $400 a pound for what they think is whale meat,” Sean said.


Objective: Multidisciplinary Connections

• Design play of Japanese wedding

• Propose new law on harvesting whales or labeling whale meat

• Design a pamphlet for whale meat consumer

• Analyze of dimensions of whale bodies, perhaps of different ages (mathematics, surface to volume ratios)

• Analyze of force required to harpoon a whale with and without modern propellants

• Decide and debate on the pros and cons of deciding who should be allowed to harvest whales

• Panel of "experts" predicting populations of whales with limited harvest.











In the 1840’s, Late Blight devastated the potato crop which resulted in mass starvation and forced migration of the human population.


Objective: : Multicultural Perspectives andInitiating Investigations

Objective: Simulating Late Blight



Sporangia from cull pile

Infections from volunteers

Crop defoliated and entirely lost well before harvest

Simulation Results: IRELAND 1840’s

Cool, wet conditions, no pest management

% blight

sporangia

infections


Modern Management: Blight CastUsing 1840 conditions. Result of spraying every 5 days = $278 profit, no tuber loss, 3% foliage loss.

sprays sporangia











New York 99

Ben called his old friend Lynn after hearing the latest count of people sick with West Nile Virus.

"Hey Lynn, you work in environmental health, . What can you tell me about this West Nile Virus? We have a real epidemic going on here in Texas and everyone is saying it came from your state."

Lynn groaned "I am so sick of New York being blamed! West Nile Virus has been around a lot longer, and it is called West Nile for a reason,” she huffed. “It is true that the first U.S. virus was detected in 1999 in a dead flamingo and a sick horse in New York City. But now it's all over the US. "

"It sure is - but, wait - a bird and a horse? I don't get it.“

Objective: Investigations and Technologies and Resources


Approximate global distribution of West Nile virus

Solomon, T., Brit. Med. J. 326, 865-869 (2003)


“It’s called West Nile for a reason. . .”


The Biology WorkBench is a web-based resource for analyzing and visualizing molecular data developed at NCSA (the National Center for Supercomputing Applications). Database searching is integrated with access to a wide variety of analysis and modeling tools

Aligned Sequences of WNV E Gene













Objective: Introduce Lab Technologyhttp://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/lucre1.html

FILTHY LUCRE:A Case Study Involving the Chemical Detection of Cocaine-Contaminated Currency

Ed AchesonDepartment of ChemistryMillikin University, Decatur, IL


Lab Technology

Tom Brown was daydreaming while standing in the security line at the airport. He was in a particularly good mood because Grandma Brown had given him $200 in $1 dollar bills as a Christmas present ... Tom had tucked the cash into his carry-on.

"Sir?” repeated a loud voice. “We have detected evidence of illegal drugs and will need to search your carry-on.”


Lab Technology

Tom’s cash ($200 in ones) will be treated with methanol to extract any cocaine present in the money. The extract will then be injected into the gas chromatograph / mass spectrometer (GC/MS), which will determine if any cocaine is present.


Lab Technology

•Roll the bill and place it into a clean vial.

•Add 2 mL of methanol to the vial.

•Cap the vial and shake for 1 minute.

•Using a glass Pasteur pipette, transfer enough methanol to an autosampler vial to fill the vial about three-quarters full.

•Remove the bill from the vial when you are finished using a forceps.



• Yellow areas are 1900 ft canker zones.

• If your citrus tree is located in one of the yellow map areas it will likely be cut down by the state citrus-canker fighters.

• Ref: Miami Herald, July 26, 2001

Family Trees Carlos Silva sipped his morning coffee in the shade of the orange and grapefruit trees in the yard. He had planted one at the birth of each of his children. As he began to read the paper, Carlos was startled by the article accompanying the full-color map on the front page. His eyes moved quickly to the center of the map where he found his own home to be outside a yellow zone north of US 41 and east of NW 87th Ave.

Objective: Investigations & Technologies


Visualization software to transform the data grid to a three dimensional image.

http://education.ncsa.uiuc.edu/products/dvs.html


http://bioquest.org/summer2006/projectfiles/cceasyvisposter.ppt


Objective: Introduce remote sensinghttp://mddnr.chesapeakebay.net/eyesonthebay/index.cfm
















http://www.demog.berkeley.edu/~andrew/1918/

Objective: Quantitative Skills


Year Male Female

1911 50.9 54.4

1912 51.5 55.9

1913 50.3 55

1914 52 56.8

1915 52.5 56.8

1916 49.6 54.3

1917 48.4 54

1918 36.6 42.2

1919 53.5 56

Average Age at Death from 1911 until 1919 in the United States (Noymer 2007)


Age 1917 1918

<1 2944.5 4540.9

1--4 422.7 1436.2

5--14 47.9 352.7

15-24 78 1175.7

25-34 117.7 1998

35-44 193.2 1097.6

45-54 292.3 686.8

US Deaths per 100,000 Attributed to Influenza and Pneumonia in 1917 and 1918 (Noymer 2007)


Predict generally what changes you’d expect to see in the SIR model results with respect to S, I, and R individuals if you were to simulate the use of masks. (Hint: Assume a 10% decrease in transmission.)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

0 20 40 60 80 100Time

# P

eo

ple

Susceptible # Infected # Recovered #

Objective: Quantitative Skills and a Simulation


Simulation Results for Scenario 2 of Avian Influenza with 250 people (200 susceptible) and the use of masks with a 10% reduction in transmission.

Masks are used starting on day 30, when the epidemic has already nearly run its course.


Simulation Results for Scenario 3 of Avian Influenza with 250 people (200 susceptible) and the use of masks with a 10% reduction in transmission.

Masks are used starting on day 10, when the epidemic is still in its growth phase.











Footprints“I’m glad I don’t live on a 200 acre farm like you,

Sam!” teased Sue as the two friends hurried into their Biology class.

“Why?” asked Sam, “Weren’t you just complaining about living in your parent’s downtown condo?”

“Well, that’s true,” Sue admitted, “But I was thinking about today’s class assignment on sustainability. I bet you have the biggest footprint in the whole class.”

Much to Sue’s surprise, Sam didn’t look all that concerned. He held out his hand and replied confidently, “I’ll take that bet!”


Objective: Introduce an Online Tool: a global resource used locally• http://www.myfootprint.org/en/visitor_information/• http://www.myfootprint.org/en/

visitor_information/


Questions from Footprint Quiz

• Food: amount of meat, how much food is local

• Goods: how much waste is produced

• Shelter: size of home, number of people, availability of water and electricity

• Mobility: kinds of transportation, car pooling, air time, fuel efficiency


The Results

Sue Sam


http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/carbontracker/

Interactive Data Source


Visual Data

http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/carbontracker/weather_movie.html NOAA Carbon Tracker



Objective: Tools for Data Visualization and Interdisciplinarity

Worldmapperwww.Worldmapper.org

Gapminder: A Data Centered View of the Worldwww. Gapminder.org

Objective: Tools for Visualizing Data


Total Carbon emissions by country


Objective: Visualizing Data, Interdisciplinarity










• To show the value of interdisciplinarity


Collaboration and Funding

Dr. Ethel Stanley, BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium

• Southeast Missouri State University• Beloit College• BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium • National Science Foundation• Howard Hughes Medical Institute• Engaging People In Cyberinfrastructure


Documents

The Flexibility of Case Methods Margaret Waterman Southeast Missouri State University 11 th Annual Conference on Case Study Teaching in Science September