1. Case Studies in Chemistry Reading 34, page 499

2. Case Studies in Chemistry Chemistry has many teaching styles: - traditional lecture style - problem based learning - guided inquiry learning - team / group learning Case studies: - widely used in business, law, medicine and engineering - now being developed for use in teaching science - developed by Canisus College, Buffalo, New York - brings CSI into the classrooms

3. Case Studies in Chemistry Why use case studies: - claims to make laboratory more interesting, challenging, and relevant to students - teach course content in an interesting manner - demonstrate the real world significance of content

4. Case Studies in Chemistry Example given: - based on an actual case of murder in London - dark skinned body is found in a river with no head or limbs - pollen found in the stomach indicate an recent arrival from overseas - other evidence suggests the boy is from Nigeria - analysed strontium level in bones - compared strontium levels in bones with levels in soil from different regions of Nigeria to get the region of origin

5. Case Studies in Chemistry Class work: - students are given data on strontium levels in bones and soil from different regions of Nigeria - advanced students were given doctored samples for their own testing (not likely in NZ schools) - had to do statistical analysis on the information - write a report on methods used and results obtained

6. Case Studies in Chemistry Are case studies effective? - two person teams most effective (equal participation) - requires students to think about the data given to them - decide which data points will be used - draw conclusions from their data - practice writing reports (real world skills) - cross-subject projects

7. Case Studies in Chemistry Where to from here? - web site (reference 6) has numerous case studies - all cases have teaching notes and forms to help teaching - many case studies are based on actual events - most seemed to be aimed at university students - wide range of subjects and topics - ethical questions often involved, but researching the topics exposes students to chemical processes or knowledge - chemistry examples ethanol from corn or biodiesel from soybeans energy drinks – best value for money

8. Case Studies in Chemistry Where to from here? - web site encourages you to modify the cases to local conditions - case studies in other subjects, e.g. biology, physics, food science, astronomy, weather - also links to numerous other web sites - good base to use when thinking about what or how to design a case study. - possible examples - - what would be the effect of urea in milk instead of melamine? -how does the Reginal Council balance water supply and demand in a local river?

9. Case Studies in Chemistry Possible difficulties: - little practical work (science fair projects?) - mainly exercises in manipulating raw data, debating issues, report writing - probably not suitable for lower level classes due to multi-disciplinary nature of cases - time consuming – curricilum constraints (extension work?) - probably few N Z related resources