HITS

The mission of the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science at the University at Buffalo is to promote the development and dissemination of materials and practices for case teaching in the sciences.  Our website provides access to an award-winning collection of peer-reviewed case studies.  We offer a five-day summer workshop and a two-day fall conference to train faculty in the case method of teaching science.  In addition, we are actively engaged in educational research to assess the impact of the case method on student learning.

What is CASES Online?

CASES Online is a collection of inquiry-based lessons to engage K-12 and undergraduate students in exploring the science behind real-world problems. Through CASES, you can transform your students into motivated investigators, self-directed and life-long learners, critical thinkers and keen problem solvers. Our cases are grounded in Problem-Based Learning (PBL), Investigative Case-Based Learning (ICBL), and related student-centered pedagogies. [more]

The Online Ethics Center (OEC) is a resource maintained by the Center for Engineering Ethics and Society (CEES) at the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Mission

The OEC mission is to

• provide engineers, scientists, faculty, and students with resources for understanding and addressing ethically significant issues that arise in scientific and engineering practice and from the developments of science and engineering; and
• serve those who promote learning and advance understanding of responsible research and practice in engineering and science.

The Science Case Network, a newly established Research Coordination Network for Undergraduate Biology Education, centers on expanding the use of and knowledge about two effective teaching approaches: case studies and problem based learning (PBL). The Science Case Network seeks to connect case study and PBL innovators, researchers, and user groups to further the understanding of the effectiveness of these methods.

Case studies and PBL have been shown to help undergraduates develop superior skills in question formulation and data analysis while they learn as much content as with traditional methods. Using these approaches, students collaboratively analyze a scenario that presents a biological issue within a realistic setting. Students then conduct investigations and report findings.