Laboratory Based Case Studies: Closer to the Real World

• Published in: Journal of college science teaching Vol. 35; no. 2; pp. 27 - 29
• Main Author: Dinan, Frank J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon The National Science Teachers Association 01-10-2005; National Science Teachers Association; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Aluminum; Aluminum foil; Bones; Case Method (Teaching Technique); Case Studies; Chemistry; College Science; Cooperative Learning; Experimental procedures; Foreign Countries; Laboratories; Narratives; Science Education; Science Experiments; Science Laboratories; Strontium; Student costs; Teachers; Undergraduate Students; Wall Street; Written narratives
• ISSN: 0047-231X; 1943-4898

Case-based laboratories offer students the chance to approximate real science. Based on interesting stories that pose problems requiring experimental solutions, they avoid the cookbook approach characteristic of traditional undergraduate laboratory instruction. Instead, case-based laboratories challenge students to develop, as much as possible, their own experimental procedures, and to think about and interpret the significance of the results they obtain. A well-designed laboratory case study should contain the following key elements: (1) it should tell a story that is interesting and relevant to its student audience; (2) it should pose a challenging problem for the students to solve experimentally; (3) it should, as far as possible, allow the students to work in teams to design with appropriate but minimal faculty guidance their own approach to solving the experimental problem posed; (4) it should be brief; and (5) it should require a report written in a narrative style. A well-designed laboratory case should give students a feeling of ownership for the experimental approach they design. The lab instructor's role should be limited to answering the students' questions and reviewing the procedures they propose before allowing any experimental work to begin. This is important since the goal of laboratory-based cases is to allow students to think their own way through the case's problem to its experimental solution. Safety, of course, must be every instructor's primary consideration. Here, the author presents existing case studies as a way of illustrating the development of a laboratory-based case study. A variety of laboratory-based case studies drawn from a number of disciplines may be found on the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science web site (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases). Well-designed case study-based laboratories offer an exciting alternative to conventional "cookbook" laboratories. They allow students to see the utility of the work they do and to participate more fully in planning what they will do in the laboratory. Moreover, they require critical thinking in addition to "technique based" laboratory skills and involve students in meaningful ways that conventional laboratories all too often do not. Their use for undergraduate laboratory instruction both improves the quality of that instruction and increases students' interest in the laboratory work they do.