This “clicker case” introduces students to the basics of nutrient cycling using a recent example of the expansion of a refinery on Lake Michigan. The story is told through a series of news clips from Chicago’s National Public Radio affiliate, WBEZ, which covers the northeastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana region.  The case is presented in class using a series of PowerPoint slides (~3.7MB) punctuated by questions that the students answer using electronic personal response systems, or "clickers." The case was designed for use in an upper-level introductory ecology course. It would be equally well suited in lower-level ecology courses as well as environmental science courses, and in an introductory biology course that covers nutrient cycles and/or pollution.