Cultivating application-oriented talents with innovative ideas and strong comprehensive ability is the key to the current reform of mathematics teaching in colleges and universities. Based on the simulation and practicality of the case teaching method, this paper introduces it into the teaching of mathematical modeling courses. In order to investigate the role of case teaching method on the establishment of students’ application consciousness, two classes with basically close starting levels are selected to carry out teaching experiments, and the teaching effect of mathematical modeling course based on case teaching method is evaluated by means of course tests and questionnaires. After the teaching practice, the test scores of the experimental students were improved by 7.34% compared with those before the experiment, and 3.40% compared with the control students, and 31.23%~47.93% in the cultivation of mathematical application consciousness was obtained, which confirms the role of the case-based teaching method in helping the students’ academic performance and mathematical application consciousness. The application of actual case teaching method in mathematical modeling course is beneficial to cultivate students’ mathematical thinking and innovation ability, and is a kind of teaching method that effectively improves the teaching effect of mathematical modeling.
