One effective method to improve the learning of science is through case study teaching. Teachers use realistic or true narratives to provide opportunities for students to integrate multiple sources of information in an authentic context, and may engage students with ethical and societal problems related to their discipline. However, little empirical research has examined whether and how these case-based teaching approaches have the desired effects of promoting deep understanding, enabling transfer of ideas to new contexts, and making learning more motivating or valuable for certain student populations. In this article, the authors propose that empirical research, particularly well-designed classroom experiments, has the potential to lead to a strong line of research regarding case-based teaching in science. The authors illustrate how such experiments might be done, describing what needs to be measured and how this approach is superior to much of the current research on case study teaching. The authors urge faculty to think systematically about principles of scientific inquiry in education, to use a research design that will provide valid and reliable evidence for claims they want to make and/or processes they want to better understand, to carefully consider measurement issues, and to avoid common problems in evaluation. (Contains 1 table.)