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Enrich your students’ educational experience with case-based teaching

The NCCSTS Case Collection, created and curated by the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, on behalf of the University at Buffalo, contains over a thousand peer-reviewed case studies on a variety of topics in all areas of science.

Cases (only) are freely accessible; subscription is required for access to teaching notes and answer keys.

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Latest Case Studies

Development of the NCCSTS Case Collection was originally funded by major grants to the University at Buffalo from the National Science Foundation , The Pew Charitable Trusts , and the U.S. Department of Education .

National Center for case study teaching in science

2019 conference program, friday, september 27, 2019.

REGISTRATION & LIGHT REFRESHMENTS

9am – 9:15am

Welcoming Remarks

Clyde (Kipp) Herreid, Directors, National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY

9:15am – 10:15am

KEYNOTE SESSION

Motivating Durable Learning: Focused Attention Through Instructional Design

Cognitive scientists have been systematically studying processes such as attention, memory, and learning for more than 150 years. This rich resource of knowledge has only recently been applied to developing evidence-based interventions in education. A key focus of this research has been to promote learning that is durable -- learning that extends beyond short-term testing to long-term retention of information that remains with the student after the final exam. In this presentation, I will discuss three key factors that instructors can implement to promote durable learning: (1) Learning relies on sustained attention ; in class, instructors can implement methods to reduce mind wandering and students can engage in practices to promote effortful and focused attention; (2) Design of teaching materials directly guides learning ; perhaps the greatest impact an instructor can make on learning is to offer thoughtfully designed class materials that adhere to multimedia learning principles, including slide design that reduces cognitive load and thus promotes student learning; and (3) Study habits such as retrieval practice strengthen long-term retention ; instructors can implement effective assessment design into the course structure and students can learn to take an active role in learning and testing. A key message in applying cognitive principles to instructional design is that both instructors and students have important parts to play in developing habits that promote durable learning.

10:15am – 10:30am

COFFEE BREAK

10:30am – 12pm

BREAK-OUT SESSION 1

Track A: What is a Case Study? Experience it as a Student, Dissect it as a Teacher

Annie Prud’homme-Genereux , Director, Continuing Studies and Executive Education, Capilano University, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

If you are new to case studies, this is a great place to start. In this session, you will first put on your learner hat and experience a case study as a student. Take this time to reflect on this pedagogical approach’s strengths and weaknesses to hone your own use of cases in the classroom. The demo will be followed by a debriefing in which we explore why the instructor made some of the choices she did (and discuss best practices in case study teaching). We will review several case study formats (e.g., PBL, case discussion, interrupted case, intimate debate, role play, jigsaw, journal cases, etc.) to help you identify the one that best suits your classroom needs. We also will explore websites where you can get free cases. You will leave this session armed with the knowledge and confidence you need to start teaching with cases.

Track B: The Goldilocks Principle: Building a Ladder to Success by Scaffolding Student Thinking

Sandra Westmoreland , Associate Professor of Biology at Texas Woman’s University (retired) and Clinical Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing and Health Innovations at The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX

The Goldilocks principle refers to the preference to attend to events that are neither too simple nor too complex according to our current representation of the world. In the realm of teaching, this principle can be used to design questions for successful case studies. If we ask questions that are too easy, our students are bored. If we ask questions that are too hard, students are lost and quickly “zone out.” In accordance with the Goldilocks principle, teachers can carefully design a series of “just right” classroom questions to scaffold student success. In this hands-on, interactive workshop, participants will work in teams as they learn to construct increasingly complex and challenging case study questions, with success reinforced by personal answer devices. Leave the session empowered to create lessons to "build ladders to success" for your own students!

1pm – 2:30pm

BREAK-OUT SESSION 2

Kipp Herreid , Director, National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY

Business and law schools have for many years taught cases by way of the discussion method. Discussion cases are typically written as dilemmas that give the history of an individual, institution, organization, or community facing a problem that must be solved. The teacher's goal is to help students analyze the problem and consider possible solutions and their consequences. On the surface of it, the method is simple: the instructor asks probing questions and the students analyze the problem presented in the story with probity and brilliance. Most science teachers, however, have little or no experience running this type of a class. In this session, you will have the opportunity to participate in a discussion case and then analyze the process of teaching it.

Track B: Using and Developing Case Studies with HHMI BioInteractive Video Resources

Phil Gibson , HHMI BioInteractive Ambassador, Professor, Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology Department of Biology, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK

HHMI BioInteractive video resources provide background information on many scientific topics in an engaging, information-rich format whose short structure makes them useful as a vehicle for case studies. These videos provide excellent resources that can introduce topics, explore concepts, and build skills in a case study format. The objective for this workshop is to demonstrate how short videos can be used to engage students in meaningful active learning activities that help develop skills in critical thinking, data literacy, and the scientific process. This workshop will guide participants through examples of how HHMI BioInteractive video resources can be used in case studies and focus on learning the processes for developing their own similar activities.

2:30pm – 2:45pm

2:45pm – 4:15pm.

BREAK-OUT SESSION 3

Track A: The Interrupted Case Method

In the interrupted case method, students are given a problem (a case study) to work on in stages in small groups. After the groups are given a short time to discuss the initial information they receive, the instructor provides additional information to analyze, apply, and discuss. This sequence is repeated several times as the problem gets closer to resolution. One of the great virtues of the method is the way it mimics how real scientists go about their work. Scientists do not have all of the facts at once; they get them piecemeal. This method of “progressive disclosure” is also characteristic of problem-based learning (PBL), but in the interrupted case method the case typically is accomplished in a single class period rather than over several days. In this workshop, you will participate in an interrupted case study and then analyze the experience.

Kathy Hoppe , Education Consultant, STEMisED, Arlington, VA. Jorge Valdes , Education Program Advisor, Office of Education and Outreach, United States Patent and Trademark Office, Arlington, VA

Case-based lessons for high school students involve providing context for the learner and engaging them in real-world scenarios that directly correlate to content in both state and national science standards. Participants in this workshop will learn how to integrate the concepts of evolutionary biology with the process of biomimetic engineering, invention, and intellectual property instruction. Time-tested biological systems, methods for survival, and sustainability can inspire innovations and inventions that exist in balance within a complex environment. Participants will learn how to implement a case based on biomimetic research and engineering. They will take on the student role and learn through working on the case together, and at the same time learn how to coach and facilitate integrated case-based invention and intellectual property lessons in their classroom.

5:30pm – 7pm

POSTER SESSION / COCKTAIL HOUR (CASH BAR)

Saturday, September 28, 2019

8am – 8:30am.

CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

8:30=am – 10:00am

BREAK-OUT SESSION 4

Track A: A Backward Approach to Designing Case Studies

William Cliff , Professor, Department of Biology, Niagara University, Niagara Falls, NY

As case study practitioners, we can become so enamored with the method that we spend most of our efforts on implementation.  However, in their influential book Understanding by Design , Wiggins and McTighe remind us that implementation should be the last step in any process of curricular design.   Following their dictums, in this workshop a “backward” design approach will be offered as the preferred means to promote successful case-based learning. Guided by a framework that identifies issues and concerns central to backward design, workshop participants will be shown a favorable strategy for managing case-based learning in the science classroom. Participants will be challenged to use this approach to begin devising or reengineering a case of their own. A final discussion will provide opportunity for comparison of case-based learning methods, assessment tools, and student learning outcomes in the sciences. Participants should expect to leave the workshop better equipped to incorporate case-based teaching and learning into their own courses.

Track B:  High School Teacher Session: “Who Let The Dogs Out?” A Case on DNA Structure, Function and Analysis

Attendees of this workshop will participate in a case study that integrates a large-scale DNA model, DNA extraction, simulated gel electrophoresis, and related historical information about patents and trademarks in the field of molecular biology. This PBL-based case study integrates modeling, lab work, simulated analysis, and invention through a story about breeding puppies. Participants will take on the student role and at the same time learn how to coach and facilitate learning.

Track C: Molecular Case Studies: Analysis at the Interface of Biology and Chemistry

Shuchi Dutta, Scientific Educational Development Lead, RCSB Protein Data Bank / Research Assistant Professor, Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ

Understanding structure and function is common to biology, chemistry, and biochemistry education. However, introducing students to molecular structure visualization and helping them bridge the gap between biology and chemistry can be challenging. A group of seven undergraduate educators from around the nation has formed a network called the Molecular CaseNet. These educators have collaboratively identified real-world contexts (problems, topics, phenomenon) and developed molecular case studies based on these for use in a variety of different courses and at different levels of rigor. In addition to instruction in biomolecular structure and function, these cases are designed to introduce students to currently underutilized public bioinformatics resources while engaging them in “scientific practices.” In this interactive workshop, you will be introduced to some of these cases and invited to pilot them in your own classrooms. Your feedback will help improve these cases for use in interdisciplinary teaching and learning.

10:00am – 10:15am

10:15am – 11:45pm.

BREAK-OUT SESSION 5

Track A:  How to Write a Case

Finding a topic isn't difficult. Cases can be used to teach almost any topic, from mitosis to nuclear fission. The challenge is how to craft a case study so that it achieves your teaching objectives while providing students with a compelling story that is relevant and thought-provoking. In this workshop, we will provide you with a recipe for writing successful cases. Join us and leave the workshop with a rough draft of a case for one of your own courses.

Track B: Bioinformatics and DNA-Based Case Studies

Michèle Shuster , Associate Professor of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM

The field of bioinformatics (managing and analyzing large biological data sets) is becoming increasingly important in a variety of areas, including medicine (e.g., genetics and pharmacogenomics), as well as in “recreational genetics,” as people explore their ancestry using their DNA. Given the prevalence of DNA-based applications (e.g. diagnostics and ancestry testing), it is important that students (and members of society) become familiar with these applications and what they can and cannot tell us. DNA-based case studies are ideal ways to use DNA sequences in ways that help students learn both basic concepts about genetics and the role of DNA in society. We have successfully designed and used DNA-based case studies for grades 5-12 as well as for undergraduate students (see, e.g., Murder by HIV? and MRSA in the NICU: Outbreak or Coincidence? on the NCCSTS website). Come to this session to experience some examples of DNA-based case studies and to learn how to design your own. We will be using open access online tools, so having an internet-capable tablet or laptop will be very helpful.

11:45pm – 12:45pm

12:45pm – 2:15pm.

BREAK-OUT SESSION 6

Track A:  Filling Your Case Study Toolkit: Tips, Tricks and Tools for Teaching Using Cases

Annie Prud’homme-Genereux, Director, Continuing Studies and Executive Education, Capilano University, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Whether you are a seasoned case study teacher or are just getting started, you are probably seeking tools that you can use to manage the case study classroom more effectively. This session will familiarize you with some of the most useful strategies I have accumulated for teaching with cases. You will experience, and we will discuss, strategies for forming student teams and managing them effectively as well as ways of ensuring that students take responsibility for their learning and do their homework ahead of a case.  You will have the opportunity to play with some free and fun technology you can use to pool student feedback anonymously and you will become familiar with a set of resources you can use to formulate questions that supplement a case and confront students with their misconceptions. I accumulated and selected these resources over 15 years; save yourself years of searching and experience them all in 90 minutes!

Track B:   “A Perfect Medley”: Combining Science Case Studies with Team-Based Learning

Using case studies in our classrooms is a natural fit for teachers who wish to encourage critical thinking skills in their students. However, sometimes including case studies in our curricula seems challenging. How do we make the case study experience student-centered, engaging, and interactive, even if our class has a high enrollment? In this workshop, we will experience how Team-Based Learning creates a “perfect medley” when combined with science case studies and can be used to build a natural framework for implementing case studies in your classroom. Come prepared to join a team and experience Team-Based Learning first-hand. Leave ready to try this teaching method with your own students!

2:15PM – 2:30PM

2:30pm – 4:00pm.

BREAK-OUT SESSION 7

Track A: Applying Multimedia Learning Principles to Enhance Student Learning in Lectures

Joseph Kim, Associate Professor in Psychology, Neuroscience and Behavior, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Among the many different teaching strategies to consider, improving the organization and design of our PowerPoint slides can have a real impact on student learning.  For most instructors, PowerPoint slides remain the basic method of delivering course materials. Think about the ineffective lectures you have sat through as a student, researcher, and instructor. Lectures that lack organization, clarity, and engagement fail to connect with students.  Students stop listening and instead simply copy the slides verbatim with little critical thinking. How do your teaching lectures compare to these experiences? If you want to motivate a passion for learning, the best place to start is to effectively deliver your course materials. By applying the findings that have been developed in controlled-lab and classroom-based studies can lead to improved lectures, which then translate into durable learning that extends from short-term tests to beyond the final exam. Unfortunately, many presenters have little understanding of the underlying multimedia learning principles that can guide learning. This workshop introduces key design principles, the importance of creating a "story structure," and a practical plan for delivering lectures with a cohesive message.

Track B: Why Are So Many College Graduates Anti-Vaxxers?  Improving Gen-Ed Science Courses by Focusing on the Process of Science Rather Than on its Factoids

Matthew Rowe , Professor of Biology, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK

Measles, a deadly and debilitating disease that the CDC declared “eradicated” in the U.S. in 2000, is back.  Yet many parents, afraid of vaccines, are throwing “measles parties” to expose their children to the virus when a playmate becomes infected.  The epicenters of recent outbreaks, including Disneyland, are often traced to wealthy enclaves of parents, most with college educations and even advanced degrees, who believe vaccines pose a greater risk to their children than do the diseases the immunizations effectively prevent.  Weren’t each of these parents required to complete a gen-ed science course or two during college?  How have we, as educators, failed them so miserably?  More importantly, what can we do to provide our current and future students with better tools to make these life-and-death decisions?  First, we have to make science relevant to students who are not science majors.  Second, we must effectively teach the process of science rather than just its facts, so that students can distinguish good science from bad science from pseudoscience.  And lastly, we must instill in our students the confidence that, upon graduation, they have the necessary skills to make thoughtful and intelligent decisions regarding the next “controversial” scientific topic to appear on one of their Twitter feeds.  Participants in this workshop will actively engage in a case study designed specifically towards these ends -- a case examining the purported connection between autism and the MMR vaccine.

© 1999-2024 National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, University at Buffalo. All Rights Reserved.

Case-Based Learning

This guide explores what case studies are, the value of using case studies as teaching tools, and how to implement them in your teaching.

What are case studies?

Case studies are stories that are used as a teaching tool to show the application of a theory or concept to real situations. Dependent on the goal they are meant to fulfill, cases can be fact-driven and deductive where there is a correct answer, or they can be context driven where multiple solutions are possible. Various disciplines have employed case studies, including humanities, social sciences, sciences, engineering, law, business, and medicine. Good cases generally have the following features: they tell a good story, are recent, include dialogue, create empathy with the main characters, are relevant to the reader, serve a teaching function, require a dilemma to be solved, and have generality.

How to use cases for teaching and learning

Instructors can create their own cases or can find cases that already exist. The following are some things to keep in mind when creating a case:

• What do you want students to learn from the discussion of the case?
• What do they already know that applies to the case?
• What are the issues that may be raised in discussion?
• How will the case and discussion be introduced?
• What preparation is expected of students? (Do they need to read the case ahead of time? Do research? Write anything?)
• What directions do you need to provide students regarding what they are supposed to do and accomplish?
• Do you need to divide students into groups or will they discuss as the whole class?
• Are you going to use role-playing or facilitators or record keepers? If so, how?
• What are the opening questions?
• How much time is needed for students to discuss the case?
• What concepts are to be applied/extracted during the discussion?
• How will you evaluate students?

To find other cases that already exist, try the following websites (if you know of other examples, please let us know and we will add them to this resource) :

• The National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science , University of Buffalo. SUNY-Buffalo maintains this set of links to other case studies on the web in disciplines ranging from engineering and ethics to sociology and business
• A Journal of Teaching Cases in Public Administration and Public Policy, University of Washington
• The American Anthropological Association’s Handbook on Ethical Issues in Anthropology , Chapter 3: Cases & Solutions  provides cases  in a format that asks the reader to solve each dilemma and includes the solutions used by the actual anthropologists. Comments by anthropologists who disagreed with the “solution” are also provided.

Additional information

• Teaching with Cases , Harvard Kennedy School
• World Association for Case Method Research and Application
• Case-Based Teaching & Problem-Based Learning , UMich
• What is Case-Based Learning , Queens University

You may also be interested in:

Project-based learning, game-based learning & gamification, udl learning community 2023, student engagement part 2: ensuring deep learning, experiential learning, embodied learning: teaching and learning with reacting to the past, safety, curiosity, and the joy of learning, universal design for learning: an introduction.

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Making Learning Relevant With Case Studies

The open-ended problems presented in case studies give students work that feels connected to their lives.

To prepare students for jobs that haven’t been created yet, we need to teach them how to be great problem solvers so that they’ll be ready for anything. One way to do this is by teaching content and skills using real-world case studies, a learning model that’s focused on reflection during the problem-solving process. It’s similar to project-based learning, but PBL is more focused on students creating a product.

Case studies have been used for years by businesses, law and medical schools, physicians on rounds, and artists critiquing work. Like other forms of problem-based learning, case studies can be accessible for every age group, both in one subject and in interdisciplinary work.

You can get started with case studies by tackling relatable questions like these with your students:

• How can we limit food waste in the cafeteria?
• How can we get our school to recycle and compost waste? (Or, if you want to be more complex, how can our school reduce its carbon footprint?)
• How can we improve school attendance?
• How can we reduce the number of people who get sick at school during cold and flu season?

Addressing questions like these leads students to identify topics they need to learn more about. In researching the first question, for example, students may see that they need to research food chains and nutrition. Students often ask, reasonably, why they need to learn something, or when they’ll use their knowledge in the future. Learning is most successful for students when the content and skills they’re studying are relevant, and case studies offer one way to create that sense of relevance.

Teaching With Case Studies

Ultimately, a case study is simply an interesting problem with many correct answers. What does case study work look like in classrooms? Teachers generally start by having students read the case or watch a video that summarizes the case. Students then work in small groups or individually to solve the case study. Teachers set milestones defining what students should accomplish to help them manage their time.

During the case study learning process, student assessment of learning should be focused on reflection. Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick’s Learning and Leading With Habits of Mind gives several examples of what this reflection can look like in a classroom: 

Journaling: At the end of each work period, have students write an entry summarizing what they worked on, what worked well, what didn’t, and why. Sentence starters and clear rubrics or guidelines will help students be successful. At the end of a case study project, as Costa and Kallick write, it’s helpful to have students “select significant learnings, envision how they could apply these learnings to future situations, and commit to an action plan to consciously modify their behaviors.”

Interviews: While working on a case study, students can interview each other about their progress and learning. Teachers can interview students individually or in small groups to assess their learning process and their progress.

Student discussion: Discussions can be unstructured—students can talk about what they worked on that day in a think-pair-share or as a full class—or structured, using Socratic seminars or fishbowl discussions. If your class is tackling a case study in small groups, create a second set of small groups with a representative from each of the case study groups so that the groups can share their learning.

4 Tips for Setting Up a Case Study

1. Identify a problem to investigate: This should be something accessible and relevant to students’ lives. The problem should also be challenging and complex enough to yield multiple solutions with many layers.

2. Give context: Think of this step as a movie preview or book summary. Hook the learners to help them understand just enough about the problem to want to learn more.

3. Have a clear rubric: Giving structure to your definition of quality group work and products will lead to stronger end products. You may be able to have your learners help build these definitions.

4. Provide structures for presenting solutions: The amount of scaffolding you build in depends on your students’ skill level and development. A case study product can be something like several pieces of evidence of students collaborating to solve the case study, and ultimately presenting their solution with a detailed slide deck or an essay—you can scaffold this by providing specified headings for the sections of the essay.

Problem-Based Teaching Resources

There are many high-quality, peer-reviewed resources that are open source and easily accessible online.

• The National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science at the University at Buffalo built an online collection of more than 800 cases that cover topics ranging from biochemistry to economics. There are resources for middle and high school students.
• Models of Excellence , a project maintained by EL Education and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has examples of great problem- and project-based tasks—and corresponding exemplary student work—for grades pre-K to 12.
• The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning at Purdue University is an open-source journal that publishes examples of problem-based learning in K–12 and post-secondary classrooms.
• The Tech Edvocate has a list of websites and tools related to problem-based learning.

In their book Problems as Possibilities , Linda Torp and Sara Sage write that at the elementary school level, students particularly appreciate how they feel that they are taken seriously when solving case studies. At the middle school level, “researchers stress the importance of relating middle school curriculum to issues of student concern and interest.” And high schoolers, they write, find the case study method “beneficial in preparing them for their future.”

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Environmental Design: Case Studies & Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Handbooks

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Case Studies & Projects

Dictionaries, Encyclopedias & Handbooks

• Green Building A to Z: understanding the language of green building by Jerry Yudelson ; foreword by Kevin Hydes. Call Number: Online Book Publication Date: 2007 Green Building A to Z is an informative, technically accurate, and highly visual guide to green building, for both decision-makers and interested citizens. It begins with an introduction to the importance of green buildings and a brief history of the green building movement, outlines the benefits and costs of green buildings, and shows how you can influence the spread of green buildings. The book touches on key issues, such as enhancing water conservation, reducing energy use, and creating a conservation economy.

Online Case Studies

• Rudy Bruner Award Digital Archive The Rudy Bruner Award Digital Archive (RBADA) provides access to award winning and fully documented urban design case studies. Intended as a resource for architecture students and practitioners as they study precedents in urban design, the Archive contains projects from 1987 to the present that have received the prestigious Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence.
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Here’s how some experts think attacks like the Buffalo shooting might be prevented

To people who study extremist violence , Buffalo wasn’t just the latest mass shooting. It was also the latest missed opportunity to stop one.

Law enforcement officials say the suspect planned his attack for months. But the police didn’t discover it, even when they detained him in June 2021 over an alleged threat to kill. While not blaming police, experts in mass shootings say the case cried out for intervention from a behavioral threat assessment team — a group of law enforcement and mental health professionals who look closely for a person on a path to violence, and try to intervene to disrupt it.

Given the political gridlock over gun laws, they say this model may be the best hope to reduce the frequency of mass casualty attacks that have become a fixture of American life.

“What appears to have happened with this case in Buffalo is you have an at-risk individual who was raising serious concern to the point where he was taken into custody ... and had a mental health evaluation,” said Mark Follman, author of " Trigger Points ," a new book examining efforts to prevent mass shootings. “But then that was kind of the end of it, as far as we know.”

Officials say police were called after accused shooter Payton Gendron answered a question during a class by saying that his post-graduation plans were “murder/suicide.” The threat was not specific enough to be a crime, but police took him for a psychiatric evaluation in a hospital, where he stayed overnight. They said mental health professionals there determined he wasn’t a danger to himself or others, and released him. He returned to his high school and graduated without incident.

Experts say that the psychiatric evaluation would have been the ideal time to bring in a threat assessment team, a specialized group of mental health and law enforcement professionals whose goal is to determine whether someone is at risk of becoming violent, and if so, to attempt to provide mental health or other counseling. New York State Police, which responded to the threat, does not have such a unit. Nor do most police departments.

In chat logs reviewed by NBC News and linked to the suspect by law enforcement officials, Gendron wrote that his mental evaluation consisted of a 15-minute conversation in an emergency room. He says he lied — and played off his threat as a joke.

“I got out of it because I stuck with the story that I was getting out of class and I just stupidly wrote that down,” he wrote in January. “That is the reason I believe I am still able to purchase guns. It was not a joke, I wrote that down because that’s what I was planning to do. Perhaps it was a cry of help from me, I’m not actually sure.”

Experts believe that’s exactly what it was.

“From a behavioral aspect, he is crying out for help,” said Katherine Schweit, who ran the FBI’s mass shooter program. “We see that in so many instances, particularly with younger shooters, where they are just crying out, bleeding out this leakage, to show how brittle they are.”

In typical police-requested psychiatric evaluation, a subject “will be seen by a mental health professional that often does not understand this concept of moving on a pathway to violence,” said J. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist who consults with the FBI in the discipline of behavioral threat assessment and management. “Most mental health professionals are not trained to understand targeted violence. They’re trained in the assessment of impulsivity, the assessment of high states of emotionality. And that’s not what you get in cases such as this.”

Behavioral threat assessments are designed to inquire more deeply into a person’s state of mind, in search of behaviors that research has found are common among mass shooters. And if the person is determined to pose a risk, the team engages over a period of time.

In online postings that authorities say he wrote, Gendron described becoming radicalized to his racist worldview while having to stay at home during the pandemic, where he marinated in conspiracy theories on sites like 4chan in the darker corners of the internet. But he says he carefully hid his plans, even from his family. It will never been known whether any type of intervention could have stopped him, but experts say they have seen behavioral threat management work, time and again.

“Threat assessment and threat management sounds like big words, but really what they are is a group of people who have different skill sets that kind of act like a cast on somebody’s broken arm,” Schweit said. “They just wrap around that person and manage and monitor that person through time. It might be a coach, who finds a student who’s having trouble, who gives them extra time. And it might be a teacher who finds a student who is brilliant in certain areas, but feels left out, and maybe that teacher finds somebody for that child to tutor.”

Threat assessment teams are active in many school districts, set up in response to the wave of school shootings. But the intensive intervention they offer is much harder to implement outside a school setting, experts say. Gendron made the threat shortly before he graduated from high school. After that he was attending community college and living with his parents, and would have had to agree to counseling.

Nonetheless, it’s been done. A few major police agencies practice the discipline, and some  firms  offer the service to corporations to stave off workplace violence. The Los Angeles Police Department founded its  unit  decades ago in response to the problem of disturbed, obsessed individuals stalking Hollywood actors. Proponents say those units should be as ubiquitous as Joint Terrorism Task Forces, the FBI-led regional centers that empower law enforcement agencies to share information and jointly work terrorism cases.

“What we have found very effective is sometimes just outreach by a law enforcement officer, to make contact with the person and literally develop a friendship with the person,” Meloy said. “Often these individuals, they’re lonely, life is not going well. And just somebody showing an interest in their life and listening to them makes a difference. It sounds very much like a soft approach, which it is, but we forget how the deep-seated feelings of loneliness and frustration and humiliation can often be the seeds that lead to grievance and anger and decision-making that is very destructive, and lead to acts like we have seen in in Buffalo.”

It’s not uncommon for people who commit mass shootings to have previously come on the radar of law enforcement.

Just a week ago, NBC News  reported  on the FBI’s 2016 encounter with a troubled young man who had made a threat in Aztec, New Mexico. He convinced the agents he didn’t mean it, and the FBI closed the case. Although an FBI agent recommended counseling, there is no evidence he got it, and his father helped him buy a handgun. A year and a half later, he carried out a school shooting.

Last year, the FBI acknowledged that agents interviewed a man in 2020 after his own mother called police, concerned about his state of mind. The FBI took no action, and he went on to shoot eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis.

For his book, Follman embedded with threat assessment teams and watched what he believes were successful efforts to stave off violence.

It’s hard to say how often that has happened, he said.

“You’re talking about stopping attacks before they occur. So then how do you prove that violence didn’t occur because of what you did?” Follman said. “But by getting inside a lot of these threat cases, and watching threat assessment teams work, I was able to see some very compelling examples of situations where you had people who were in crisis, who were setting up for some pretty scary situations, who were thinking about violence over a long period of time, who were taking steps to plan and prepare for it. In some cases, people who had access to weapons.”

Based on those cases, he added, “you can see a very compelling argument that had there not been an intervention by a threat assessment team, that this person very likely would have gone on to commit a violent attack. So I came to see, I think there have been dozens of cases like this that had been prevented, perhaps even hundreds throughout the country over recent years.”

The shootings that don’t happen obviously don’t make the news, Schweit said. 

“Local and federal law enforcement work every day with people who are on a trajectory towards violence, and then they end up not committing that violence,” she said. “We call it threat assessment and threat management. And in some cases, it’s not done. And that’s probably the situation that we have in Buffalo.”

Ken Dilanian is the justice and intelligence correspondent for NBC News, based in Washington.

Didi Martinez is an associate producer with the NBC News Investigative Unit. 

Seventeen research stories from a year of discovery at UB

The freeze-dried ingredients of a liposome-based vaccine that could be developed for COVID-19. A team led by UB biomedical engineers reported on this promising technology this fall. Credit: Douglas Levere / University at Buffalo

From documenting inequality in Buffalo to identifying proven oral hygiene tools for happy gums, UB scholars’ work had local and international impact in 2021

By charlotte hsu.

Release Date: December 27, 2021

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The key to detecting deepfake photos may be the light in a person’s eyes. New knowledge about how neurons sense pain could lead to non-opioid painkillers. Also, sea anemones can eat ants. Yes, ants.

These and other UB discoveries from 2021 reminded us of the multitude of wonders that grace the world we all share. In a year that challenged us all, the work of UB scholars highlighted beauty, curiosity and hope. Their findings, writings and art also called attention to the deep problems that modern societies face, and the steps we can take together to move forward in 2022 and after.

As we end another year, here are a few UB stories from 2021 that made headlines in Buffalo and around the world.

History | Ancient dogs

This bone fragment, a piece of a femur, was found in Southeast Alaska. It belongs to a dog that lived about 10,150 years ago, a study concludes. This image is a composite that employs a technique called focus-stacking to show details of the bone more clearly. Credit: Douglas Levere / University at Buffalo

In early 2021, UB researchers announced a thrilling discovery: a femur fragment found in a cave in Southeast Alaska belonged to a dog that lived about 10,150 years ago. That made the ancient bone — thought to be a bear’s before its DNA was sequenced — the oldest confirmed remains of a domestic dog in the Americas , according to scientists. The finding offered new insights into the story of how canines — and the people who domesticated them — first came to this part of the world. UB biological sciences researchers Charlotte Lindqvist and Flavio Augusto da Silva Coelho led the work, with a team from UB and the University of South Dakota.

As featured in:

• Science Magazine: Remains of oldest American dog bolster idea that first humans arrived along the coast
• National Geographic: Oldest dog remains in Americas discovered in Alaska
• Smithsonian Magazine: Ancient DNA Reveals the Oldest Domesticated Dog in the Americas
• Nature Research Highlights: An ancient Alaskan dog’s DNA hints at an epic shared journey

Deepfakes | A light in the eye

Question: Which of these people are fake? Answer: All of them. Credit: www.thispersondoesnotexist.com  and the University at Buffalo.

UB researchers have developed a tool that identifies deepfake images by analyzing reflections of light on people’s corneas. Typically, in genuine photos and videos, “The two eyes should have very similar reflective patterns” because they’re exposed to the same light sources, says UB computer scientist Siwei Lyu. Deviations can indicate trickery, as deepfakes generated using artificial intelligence fail to consistently reproduce uniform reflections. Lyu created the tool with Shu Hu and Yuezun Li .

• CNET: Deepfakes can be detected by analyzing light reflections in eyes, scientists say
• Futurism: Algorithm detects deepfakes by analyzing reflections in eyes
• BBC: Detecting deepfakes
• WKBW-TV: What are deepfake images and how can you spot them?

Cities and inequality | Three decades in Buffalo

Experts including Henry-Louis Taylor Jr., director of UB’s Center for Urban Studies, discusses social inequity and health disparities. The center joined the Community Health Equity Research Institute at UB in 2021 .

With support from community and academic partners, UB’s Center for Urban Studies released a report on inequality in Buffalo over the past three decades, looking at conditions impacting Black residents. Researchers examined metrics like poverty rates, household income, homeownership, employment and education, and concluded that “an entire generation saw little if any improvements in their lives.” Henry-Louis Taylor Jr., lead author and the center’s director, raised awareness about such inequities as Buffalo’s mayoral election captured national attention. “The problems that Buffalo face are the problems that America face,” he told CBS News.

• The Buffalo News:  30 years after landmark study, UB researchers find little progress on Black poverty in Buffalo
• Investigative Post:  Report: Conditions worsen for Blacks in Buffalo
• WKBW-TV:  UB releases new research about the Black community in Buffalo
• CBS News:  What happens if Buffalo elects a socialist mayor?

Public art | ‘Flight of the Chickadee’

The UB Arts Collaboratory Working Artists Lab collaborative mural at Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts. Photo by Biff Henrich, courtesy of Cecily Brown, UB Arts Collaboratory Working Artists Lab, Buffalo and Bortolami, New York.

Bright, lively and born through a very special collaboration , a mural titled “Flight of the Chickadee” graces the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts’ building. This work of public art brought together the ideas and talents of renowned painter Cecily Brown, local artists and storytellers, and students from the academy, part of Buffalo Public Schools. All worked on every stage of the mural , which depicts regional themes including Buffalo’s seasons and plants and animals of significance to the Haudenosaunee. Brown completed her work in Buffalo as a visiting artist with the UB Arts Collaboratory.

• The Buffalo News: Cecily Brown creates mural with local artists, Performing Arts students
• Whitewall: Cecily Brown Creates Collaborative Mural in Buffalo
• Bloomberg: A Mural-Making Spree Lifts Spirits in Buffalo
• Forbes: Cecily Brown Enlivens A High School In Buffalo With A Mural Painted In Collaboration With Local Artists
• WKBW-TV: Collaborative effort among artists brings new mural to Buffalo

COVID-19 | Tracking new variants

Some of the key collaborators in the effort to do genomic surveillance of COVID-19 in Erie County include Jennifer Surtees, UB associate professor of biochemistry; Gale Burstein, Erie County Commissioner of Health; and Carleen Pope, administrative coordinator of the Erie County Public Health Laboratory. Credit: Douglas Levere / University at Buffalo

Genomic sequencing is a critical global tool in identifying new COVID-19 variants and understanding how the pandemic is evolving. In Western New York, UB biochemist Jennifer Surtees has been leading such surveillance efforts. She and colleagues at the Genomics and Bioinformatics Core at UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences conduct sequencing of regional COVID-19 samples. Their work supports public health efforts,  tracking the spread of the Delta variant in the area  and  identifying the arrival of the Omicron variant , for example.  

• The Buffalo News: First case of Omicron variant identified in Western New York
• The Buffalo News: Delta variant of Covid-19 found in Erie County, UB scientists say
• Nature News: Delta coronavirus variant: scientists brace for impact
• WGRZ-TV: UB researchers find samples locally of 'delta' COVID variant
• WKBW-TV: UB experts reviewing positive COVID samples for latest variant

COVID-19 | Freeze-dried vaccines?

Moustafa Mabrouk, University at Buffalo biomedical engineering PhD student, holds a vial containing ingredients of a liposome-based liquid vaccine that could be developed for COVID-19. Mabrouk is among UB researchers who have studied the possibility of freeze-drying liposome-based vaccines. Credit: Douglas Levere / University at Buffalo

In 2021, a COVID-19 vaccine candidate under development by UB spinoff POP Biotechnologies and South Korean biotech company EuBiologics moved into human trials in South Korea . The vaccine, a liquid injection, employs specialized liposomes designed by UB biomedical engineer Jonathan Lovell and colleagues. Research is now underway on another useful advance: the possibility of freeze-drying vaccines that leverage the liposomes. Dry doses could be shipped at room temperature and rehydrated at clinics, eliminating refrigeration needs that can slow vaccination campaigns. Lovell’s team reported promising findings on freeze-drying this fall , with UB biomedical engineer Moustafa Mabrouk as first author on a paper in Science Advances.

• Buffalo Business First: Covid-19 vaccine developed by UB, POP Biotechnologies enters human trials
• WBFO: Freeze-dried COVID vaccines? UB is working on it
• Daily Beast: This New Formula Can Help Us Vaccinate Poorer Countries
• Technology Networks: How To Freeze-Dry a Potential COVID-19 Vaccine

Animals | Ant-eating sea anemones

The giant plumose anemone  Metridium farcimen . Credit: Christopher Wells, as published in  Environmental DNA

The giant plumose anemone is a sea creature. It’s an animal, but it looks like cauliflower. Also, it eats ants. Yes, you read that right: ants. Led by UB geology researcher Christopher Wells, scientists used a method called DNA metabarcoding to identify the gut contents of anemones fixed to floating docks in the Pacific Northwest. Surprising menu items included pale-legged field ants, which may get pushed into the ocean by wind during mating flights.

• National Geographic: Sea anemones sometimes eat … ants. But why?
• Science Magazine: These cauliflower-like anemones snack on ants
• BBC Science Focus: Giant sea anemones eat ants

Hospice | The dreams we dream before we die

Portrait of Carine Mardorossian, UB professor of English and Global Gender and Sexuality Studies, and co-author, with Christopher Kerr, of "Death Is But a Dream. The two had been friends for years before they began writing. Credit: Douglas Levere / University at Buffalo

As death draws near, many people begin experiencing vivid, transformative dreams and visions — ones that resurrect past relationships and reunite the dying with loved ones they’ve lost. In 2020, UB English professor Carine Mardorossian worked with local hospice doctor Christopher Kerr to author a book on these end-of-life experiences , which Kerr had observed through years of caring for patients. This spring, public television stations across the U.S. aired a documentary based on that work, “Death Is But A Dream.” In an essay published in March, Mardorossian reflected on the meaning of these end-of-life experiences in the midst of a global pandemic: “It may help to know that the dying rarely speak of being alone,” she wrote. “They speak of being loved and put back together.”

• The Conversation: As death approaches, our dreams offer comfort, reconciliation
• PBS International: Death Is But a Dream
• Washington Post: How visions, dreams and end-of-life experiences help people prepare for death

Addiction | Alternatives to opioids

Left to right: Rasheen Powell, PhD, first author on the study, conducted the research under the supervision of Arin Bhattacharjee, PhD, senior author, with Garrett Sheehan, a doctoral candidate in UB's neuroscience program. Credit: Sandra Kicman / University at Buffalo

How do we sense pain? In the course of exploring this question, UB medical researchers discovered that certain pain-sensing neurons engage in an activity called endocytosis as part of the process to signal inflammatory pain. Blocking endocytosis can lead to relief, according to a study led by pharmacology and toxicology researchers Arin Bhattacharjee and Rasheen Powell. Bhattacharjee has co-founded Channavix Inc., a biotech company that’s leveraging this knowledge to develop non-opioid painkillers.

• The Naked Scientists: New painkiller: local and long-lasting relief
• Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News: Locally Administered Lipidated Peptides Offer Long-Lasting Pain Relief without Opioids
• Forbes: An Opiate-Free, Durable, Non-Addictive Pain Killer For Inflammatory Pain ... in Rats
• Drug Target Review: Peptides: a promising alternative to opioids for chronic pain relief

Education | The next generation — of teachers

“A Case for Change in Teacher Preparation: Developing Community-Based Residency Programs."

In 2019, the UB Graduate School of Education launched a program that enables educators to earn initial teacher certification in 15 months through a paid, hands-on residency. Participants co-teach at an urban school alongside a mentor teacher, and engage in coursework, too. Called the UB Teacher Residency Program , the effort is a partnership with Buffalo Public Schools (BPS). It works to increase equity, diversity, justice and inclusion in schools through teacher education. A variety of media have reported on the program in recent years, and in 2021, a team from UB and BPS authored a book that describes the program’s development .

• Niagara Gazette: Preparing teachers to meet today's social challenges
• The Buffalo News: 'Intense' UB teacher residency program tackles diversity, retention in Buffalo schools
• WBFO: New teacher residency program kicks off at UB’s Graduate School of Education
• Insight Into Diversity: UB Graduate School of Education Develops Model for Addressing Teacher Recruitment, Retention at Local Level

Families | Parenting in a pandemic

Joanna Pepin.

How is COVID-19 shaping family life in the U.S.? As school and child care centers closed and other support systems fragmented, UB sociologist Joanna Pepin set out to understand some of the impacts on parents. She co-authored research exploring divisions of household labor and changes in employment during the pandemic, focusing on gender inequality in different-sex couples with kids in the U.S. One study found that while fathers were doing more at home, mothers still reported “retaining primary responsibility” for domestic chores. The other paper highlighted how homeschooling and the loss of child care disproportionately impacted women’s employment. This and other work have made Pepin an important voice in conversations on family policies.

• The New York Times: Which of These 4 Family Policies Deserves Top Priority?
• Harvard Business Review: To Keep Women in the Workforce, Men Need to Do More at Home
• MarketWatch: For the first time, most U.S. moms will likely be the family breadwinner within their child’s first 18 years
• The 19th: The women’s recession isn’t over — especially for moms

Materials | 3D-printing and organs

A machine dips into a vat of translucent yellow goo. Out comes a life-sized model of a hand. This takes just 19 minutes using a 3D printing method called stereolithography and jelly-like materials called hydrogels. And it’s not just fun to watch: Developed further, this tech could save lives . “Large size cell-laden hydrogel models hold great promise for tissue repair and organ transplantation,” according to a study on fast stereolithography led by UB industrial and systems engineering researchers Chi Zhou, Hang Ye and Zipeng Guo, and UB biomedical engineering researchers Ruogang Zhao and Nanditha Anandakrishnan.

• Mashable: Researchers got a step closer to 3D printed organs and human tissue
• Gizmodo: This Rapid 3D-Printing Method Could Be the Secret to Developing 3D-Printed Organs
• Engadget: New 3D printing technique could make lab-grown organs more practical ,
• Interesting Engineering: High-Speed 3D Printing Method Takes Us One Step Closer to Printing Organs

Synthetic biology | Start with sugar, end with hydrocarbons

Zhen Wang, University at Buffalo assistant professor of biological sciences, is an expert in synthetic biology. Credit: Douglas Levere / University at Buffalo

Researchers have harnessed the wonders of biology and chemistry to turn sugar into hydrocarbons . Co-led by UB biological sciences faculty member Zhen Q. Wang, the project involved genetically engineering bacteria to convert glucose — the microbes’ food — into fatty acids. Then, a catalyst was used to remove portions of the fatty acids and generate the final product: the hydrocarbons, called olefins. Olefins are found in gasoline and employed in materials manufacturing. A commentary in Nature Chemistry reflected that the research “moves us closer to making commonplace petroleum-based materials, such as wire and cable coatings, from renewable sources.”

• Nature Chemistry: Two steps to sustainable polymers
• UPI: Feeding sugar to bacteria may lead to less harmful fuel for cars, trucks
• SYFY Wire: Biofuels made by microbes
• National Geographic (Spain): From sugar to gasoline

Climate change | How we can slow the melt

The edge of the Greenland Ice Sheet. For a decade, glaciologist Sophie Nowicki has played a lead role in coordinating international efforts to understand how climate change is impacting the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Credit: Jason Briner

How will climate change impact Earth’s ice sheets in the 21st century? And how much will sea levels rise as a result? It depends on how quickly we act, says UB geology researcher Sophie Nowicki. A renowned glaciologist, she co-led a major modeling study showing how deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions could still dramatically slow the process of sea level rise this century. That research helped inform the latest assessment report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which tapped Nowicki to be a lead author of a chapter on ocean, cryosphere and sea level change .

• Bloomberg: Sea-Level Rise From Melting Land Ice May Double If Paris Pact Fails
• CNN: Antarctica's ice sheet is critical to the fate of coastal cities. How much it will melt remains a big question
• Carbon Brief: Limiting warming to 1.5C would ‘halve’ land-ice contribution to sea level rise by 2100

Careers | Strike a power pose

Min-Hsuan Tu.

Looking for a job? Striking a power pose can make an impression on hiring managers, says UB School of Management researcher Min-Hsuan Tu, who led a study  highlighting the importance of nonverbal cues in interviews . The project was motivated by decades of research suggesting that when people are considered to be attractive, it can benefit their careers. In an op-ed in Fast Company, Tu and her co-authors shared their findings, while emphasizing that — more importantly — society needs to address attractiveness bias to “ensure that people are consistently evaluated based on the knowledge, skills and abilities needed for their jobs.”

• Fast Company:  This 5-minute trick can help you get the job
• Forbes:  Attractive People Have A Big Advantage In The Job Interview
• WIVB-TV:  When it comes to careers, attractiveness pays off – but there’s a trick to unlocking those benefits

Aging | Risks of falls

Stock image. May not be republished.

Falling can be extremely dangerous for older adults, leading to injuries like hip fractures and head traumas that can be fatal. A UB study found that in 2017, 94% of adults 65 and older were prescribed a drug that increased their risk of falling — up from 57% in 1999. The rate of death caused by falls in older adults more than doubled during this time, the team concluded. UB public health researcher Amy Shaver, who conducted the study with UB pharmacy experts, says she hopes the results will start conversations about the pros and cons of medications prescribed for vulnerable populations.

• The Washington Post: The past 2 decades have seen dramatic rise in elderly taking drugs that can lead to falls
• AARP: Pandemic Poses Another Risk for Older Adults: Falling
• Kaiser Health News: More Elderly People Are Prescribed Drugs That Could Lead To Falls

Dental health | Best tools for happy gums

Proven oral hygiene tools include the basic toothbrush; interdental brush; water pick; and CHX, CPC and essential oil (Listerine) mouth rinses. Image may not be republished.

Mouthwashes. Probiotics. Dietary supplements. Floss. What oral hygiene tools help to prevent gum disease? UB oral biologist Frank Scannapieco led a project to review what existing research says . The effort identified interdental brushes and water picks as proven strategies, among others, for reducing gingivitis. And though few studies have looked at toothbrushing and flossing alone, both are essential, Scannapieco says. UB dental school graduate Eva Volman collaborated as first author alongside UB health sciences librarian Elizabeth Stellrecht as co-author.

• Consumer Affairs: Which oral hygiene products are best at preventing gum disease?
• The Buffalo News: Should you floss? What other steps can really prevent gum disease?
• Dental Tribune: The good, the bad and the unproven: Study examines consumer oral care tools
• Futurity: What works (and what doesn’t) to keep teeth and gums healthy

Media Contact Information

Charlotte Hsu is a former staff writer in University Communications. To contact UB's media relations staff, email  [email protected]  or visit our list of current university media contacts .

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