Comments on: “Compare Organic Chemistry To A Movie…”

By: Irene

Irene — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 21:04:40 +0000

I’ve heard reactions compared to crime scenes, and your focus being to understand the motive and opportunity. I like that analogy too, but I think this analogy is more detailed and makes more sense. I suppose you could incorporate the two by giving the movie a genre, like a murder mystery.

By: Christopher Patrick

Christopher Patrick — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 05:00:32 +0000

In reply to Jamie.

Hey that’s a very cool idea but I just don’t think anybody invested any interest outside their own comment to give you some credit. I thought about it for a second and visualized the cartoon lab with all of the glassware, chemicals, burners, etc. Then just play around. You can have different amounts of detailed measurements for the advanced chemistry lover. But you know what I dont think the powers that be are to cool with advancing American youth and science
If you look back in the 50s it was common place for the average American household to have a small organic chem lab in their garage to make various compounds for use around the house and garden. Also during that time real extensive & quite professional chemistry sets were marketed to kids for cheap, almost every kid had one. They sell vintage ones on ebay but then it stopped. Still have chem sets to buy with very few chemicals and none of the cool experiments. After it stopped this kid chemistry marketing jumped from country to country. It was like Russia after us. I know Germany was huge for kids chemistry in the 70s. And if you look at the workforce how technology moves. They may say we need kids to be more interested in the sciences but in reality they make it less accessible and harder for a kid to get equipment that isnt mastered before the end of the week. They dont stay excited enough and move on to what there is plenty of new material to cover, video games or whatever. Crazy
Great idea regardless.

By: desmonds

desmonds — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:35:11 +0000

well i also think chemistry course should be more unless be treating as a practically work alone than reading it theory, here is the case that we learn things that we have never seen with our naked eyes so the scientist has to do something to make the science course more attractive to students

By: Jamie

Jamie — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 23:53:02 +0000

I’d like to say it’s more of a computer game.
It has all the elements of a movie, plot, characters, dialogue… but you can control it?

In fact, while learning Chemistry I’ve often thought it would be SO MUCH EASIER if they could put the characteristics in to some sort of game.

You get direct control and your actions have conequences. It’s gotta be a good way to learn without trying to.

By: james

james — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 02:03:24 +0000

In reply to Ben T. One of the deep problems in science teaching is how to motivate those who are not naturally predisposed towards curiosity

By: Ben T

Ben T — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:33:25 +0000

I agree with this analogy. I will point out, however, that the typical testing methods we use tend to make students think less about the “plot>character>setting>lines”, and force them instead to just try to memorize certain reactions. I was a chemistry major and it seems to come almost naturally to me, but I knew plenty of students (especially pre-meds) who weren’t as invested in the science and just needed to get a good grade. Like many students, their priority was getting a high test score. Answering a certain number of questions that you know will cover a certain range of reaction types, in a limited time, does not really motivate a student to learn the fundamentals as we probalby would like them too.
I don’t really know how to improve on this, the straightforward solution would be more frequent tests that take more time but chemistry is typically already a pretty brutal course when it comes to testing, and of course the GRE and MCAT are both structured in exactly the wrong way (in my opinion). Sadly I think this will continue to be a problem until the science community can somehow influence these big testing systems to change. Well, good luck and thanks for writing this blog.

By: james

james — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:45:14 +0000

In reply to DrFreddy. So true. It didn't turned out as we imagined. My own experience with the Ni(COD) catalyzed versions was extremely unsatisfying.

By: DrFreddy

DrFreddy — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:52:09 +0000

I think that sp3-sp3 catalytic cross-couplings are identical to the Star Wars prequels (Episodes I to III). We waited in silence for decades, we invested so much hope, our entire childhood was at stake, and on the day when they finally arrived, they revealed themselves as the anticlimax of our life.

By: M S Rahman

M S Rahman — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:05:07 +0000

I think this. Is a good way to learn organic chemistry.

By: Tori

Tori — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:26:47 +0000

It’s a terrific analogy. Thanks for sharing it.