Case Studies: The Perfect Vehicle to Drive Compelling Data into a Classroom

Students are excited to learn about extreme weather events, and what better way to teach about these events then through compelling data-driven stories. Whether the topic is hurricanes, droughts, tornadoes, Nor’Easters, or blizzards each have touched lives in ways people don’t know unless they are there when the event occurs. However, carefully designed case studies which use stories as vehicles to engage students with the science content and data of weather events can connect students to those events as if they were there. Students enjoy being outside and are typically upset when a weather event passes through. Without the requisite background knowledge, they may think the weather event will ruin their entire day. However, case studies designed around events such as a baseball or softball game provides students with practice in making forecast to determine the extent of a weather event. After identifying the goals of a case, a story is designed to fit the goals, and within the story, data is provided for students to grapple with in order to make decisions about forecasts which may have an impact on an event. Case studies not only engage students in learning, but they are congruent with the K-12 Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), adopted or adapted by over 40 states.

In an NGSS classroom, students are using science and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts to make sense of a phenomena with its foundation in a core idea in science. For example, a phenomenon related to weather may be that the air temperature and humidity change after a weather front passes through a town. Students may collect and analyze weather data looking for patterns to determine the cause and effect of the changing weather. All of this can serve as a basis for a case study which links a compelling weather story to the event. Archived weather data is typically readily available and can be packaged for past weather events highlighted within a case study. There are many types of case studies, and in this situation, a “decision case” or “interrupted case” may be appropriate. In a decision case, students are sifting through all the information provided, and make evidence-based decision about what to do. In an interrupted case, students are presented with one piece of the story at a time and make their decision as more information (data) is gathered. The instructional goals of a curriculum assist in the decision about what type of case study to employ.

Case studies integrate timely content and true-to-life stories and are effective strategies which promote the development of scientific practices and crosscutting concepts. In addition, case studies can take complex scientific and socio-scientific topics and scaffold learners through the complexity. This talk will share several case studies created through the collaborations with scientists using actual data from research projects or data from actual events drawn from meteorology, environmental science, and marine science. Tips will be shared on how to select and employ data in cases and how to build stories that make the data compelling. A good phenomena and rich data combine to make great case studies.