Lorenzo’s Oil as a Vehicle for Teaching Chemistry Content, Processes of Science, and Sociology of Science in a General Education Chemistry Classroom

Abstract

The film Lorenzo’s Oil depicts the challenges faced by the parents of a child with adrenoleukodystrophy, a neurological disorder that, they were told, was certainly fatal. The film contains a significant amount of chemistry, including concepts of fatty acid metabolism, enzyme inhibition, and the purification of substances. The film also raises important issues associated with “who does science?” and “who decides what science is done?” Those sociological issues are important in engaging nonscience majors in the learning of science and the film has been used for several years at the beginning of a course for elementary education majors. A thematically similar film, Extraordinary Measures, is also discussed.

An Inconvenient Truth—Is It Still Effective at Familiarizing Students with Global Warming?

“…With regard to using movie clips, our research has shown that the audience will stay with the instructor even when digging quite deeply into chemical details because they want to know whether the movie got it right. , Other studies have found it useful to use entire movies and documentaries. For instance, movies based on true stories, such as Apollo 13 , October Sky , and Lorenzo’s Oil are able to drive discussions about lithium hydroxide carbon dioxide scrubbers, rocket fuel comparisons, and orphan disease patient advocacy, respectively. − Likewise, we found that General Chemistry students were more motivated to write 600-word reports and did a better job when we used the biographical movie Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet or the documentary Me & Isaac Newton as source material instead of newspaper articles . The goal of the present study was to determine whether the documentary An Inconvenient Truth could meet the challenge of introducing the topic of climate change to students in a nonscience chemistry course.…”

Put Some Movie Wow! in Your Chemistry Teaching

“…7 The orphan-disease movie Lorenzo's Oil (1992) provides students with enough context to promote deep explorations of the ethics of clinical trials, doctor−patient interactions, and persistence in the face of insurmountable odds. 8 In our own research, we found general chemistry students were more motivated to write 600-word reports and did a better job when we used Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940) or Me & Isaac Newton (1999) as source material instead of newspaper articles. 9 In that same paper, we describe 10 other similarly useful movies, each with different chemical and social themes.…”

“…Apollo 13 (1995) and October Sky (1999) have been identified for their ability to drive discussions about lithium hydroxide carbon dioxide scrubbers, rocket fuel comparisons, model rocket propellants, payload calculations, and persistence of effort in the face of setbacks. , Jurassic Park (1993) was used to drive discussions about cloning, protein structure, DNA structure, molecular biology, and scientific ethics . The orphan-disease movie Lorenzo’s Oil (1992) provides students with enough context to promote deep explorations of the ethics of clinical trials, doctor–patient interactions, and persistence in the face of insurmountable odds . In our own research, we found general chemistry students were more motivated to write 600-word reports and did a better job when we used Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet (1940) or Me & Isaac Newton (1999) as source material instead of newspaper articles .…”

An Experiential Learning Chemistry Course for Nonmajors Taught through the Lens of Science Fiction

“…The teaching of science through fiction has been previously explored. − For example, Brown et al argue for the use of Captain America to “set the pedagogical stage” of the courses . Jack Stocker put forth the chemical nature of a number of classical science fiction stories to make the connections between fiction and reality readily available for educators .…”