This presentation describes aspects of a unique interdisciplinary undergraduate course that used young adult literature as an aid to helping students understand concepts in science and religion/philosophy. The primary text used to support scientific understanding was the Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling. The fundamental nature of magic in the Harry Potter books is analyzed as the “science and technology” of the wizarding world. Magic is essentially a morally-neutral tool used to achieve a beneficial or destructive result. Like Rowling’s magic, science has no inherent ability to ethically regulate the limits of its own investigations. Considering the analogy of magic as science, Rowling offers the careful reader advice and warnings about the study of science and its uses. For the students of Hogwarts, training in magic focuses on learning practical magical skills. Consider the “wingardium leviosa” spell learned by students in the first year at Hogwarts. Students learned the words of the spell, the accompanying wand movement, and the desired result of the spell. This is analogous to chemistry students learning a chemical reaction, performing the reaction in the laboratory, and understanding/predicting the experimental result. Rowling also emphasizes the need to spend time simply performing or practicing magic as an important learning strategy, just as in science. While the importance of practice (in a “lab like” setting) is emphasized, some of Harry’s best learning comes in the form of independent mentoring, analogous to an independent research project, with Professor Lupin. In the later books of the series, Rowling warns readers about using science/magic without understanding the result of the experiment/spell. For example, Harry uses the “sectum sempra” curse without understanding its effect; he is then horrified by the result and is unable to reverse the spell. However, the greatest caution to scientists is the character of Tom Riddle (Voldemort). In regularly using magic as a killing tool, he loses his own precious humanity. This can be interpreted as a warning to scientists about the consequences of using science as a destructive tool.

Using the Harry Potter series as a tool to improve student understanding of scientific practice and ethics

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.