If you are a fan of the Lion King, you can improve your grades. Pumbaa, Timon, and Simba can teach you how to study more effectively. Watching movies isn’t a waste of time; it’s actually a terrific learning technique!
Anyone can become a successful student by taking advantage of Disney. If you’re looking for a way to improve memory, look no further than your favorite childhood films. Your enduring movie memories can act like filing cabinets to store any type of information.
I’ll never forget when the original Lion King came out into theaters. The year was 1994 and I was in the fourth grade. My older sister had seen the movie before me, and she couldn’t stop carrying on about Timon, Pumbaa, and all the catchy music. Soon I was hooked as well. Disney has created some masterpieces over the years, and The Lion King is one of their best. My sister and I loved the movie so much that we nicknamed one another “Pumbaa,” and it stuck. We still call each other “Pumbaa” to this day.
Lucky for me, 1994 was also the year that my family upgraded the house tape deck to a CD player, and The Lion King soundtrack came free with the purchase. With our new CD player, I had the ability to skip forward and backward between songs at will—what a concept! For the next few years, I listened to the soundtrack on repeat, and I still have most of the songs memorized. I loved everything and anything Lion King—the movie, the music, the show, the games.
At first glance, being a mega Disney fan may seem like an unhelpful skill. After all, how often does our knowledge of Pride Rock or Agrabah come in handy? Many people consider popular entertainment like movies, television, and video games to be a waste of time—but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Our favorite entertainment can be transformed to help us succeed in school.
How do I know this? I used The Lion King (as well as a variety of other Disney movies) to memorize every kidney fact for my medical boards. The Lion King helped me store information on kidney anatomy and physiology, A Goofy Movie held embryology, and Toy Story tipped me off to all the causes of acidosis and alkalosis in the body.
Utilizing my favorite movies, TV shows, and video games, I passed all three steps of the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam.
But instead of reviewing the tedious details of the renal system, today we are going to take the same concepts that I used in medical school and apply them to memorizing biology facts for the SAT.
So, how do we store information inside The Lion King? As Scar would say, be prepared. Initially, we must turn the material into pictures. Then we simply place the picture reminders inside memories of our favorite movies.
I use the unhappy movie scenes less (like the stampede where Mufasa meets his maker or the beginning of Up) because they make me glum (yep, I’m a softy). My brain naturally wants to think of the sad parts less, and I never seem to store information as well in those settings. On the other hand, the scenes with Timon, Pumbaa, or Rafiki stick in my mind—since they’re my favorite characters.
The Lion King has a ton of unique locations: Pride Rock, the grasslands, Scar’s lair, Pumbaa's and Timon’s jungle, just to name a few. Each unique location acts as a placeholder for housing different material. In our examples today, each location stores a different concept from biology.
The Lion King can help us memorize facts about the circle of life. We’ll begin with the respiratory cycle in animal cells. In the respiratory cycle, oxygen reacts with glucose (sugar) to make ATP (energy) for the cell. The process creates carbon dioxide (CO2) and water as byproducts. Since the process occurs inside animal cells, we can place the material where all the animals gather at Pride Rock.
Picture Rafiki in scuba gear (oxygen) holding up a sugary (glucose) energy drink (cell energy)—to remember that oxygen reacts with glucose to make energy. An alien (A) pegs the monkey with toilet paper (TP) because the energy molecule created is called ATP.
The byproducts gather with the animals below the rock. CO2 makes me think of paintball guns, which are powered by CO2 cartridges. Picture the animals splashing through puddles of water (H2O) while playing a game of paintball (CO2).
Elsewhere in the Pride Lands, where Simba practices his stalking skills on Zazu, we can recall how much ATP is created by aerobic vs. anaerobic respiration.
Aerobic respiration produces 36 ATP, but the anaerobic process makes just a measly two. The aerobic process occurs as the body receives an appropriate supply of oxygen, such as during a reasonably paced aerobics class when the muscles can keep working without rest. Anaerobic ATP creation occurs during sprints and heavy lifting, when more oxygen is being consumed than is taken in. Aerobic respiration makes me think of an aerobics instructor, and anaerobic respiration makes me think of a weightlifter.
To memorize the 2:36 ratio of ATP, imagine a weightlifter stalking Zazu in the tall grass, doing power lifts with an enormous hook—since a hook looks like the number two, and anaerobic respiration only produces 2 ATP. On the rock, Zazu nervously waits, teaching an aerobics class and kissing a yo-yo—since the number 3 looks like a set of puckering lips, a 6 looks like a yo-yo, and aerobic respiration creates 36 ATP.
Finally, to memorize the circle of life for plants, we can simply retreat to Pumbaa’s and Timon’s jungle. Plants participate in photosynthesis, which uses light energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and glucose (sugar). Let’s place the reactants on top of the log and the products down below. Since plants use photosynthesis, picture Simba taking photos of the jungle plants as he struts across the log with his friends. Also, imagine Simba wearing sunglasses, since the process depends on sunlight. From the top of the log, Pumbaa uses a big straw to suck up all the river water, while Timon covers his friends with paintballs (CO2).
Below the log, in the dry riverbed, lies a scuba diver (oxygen) stuffing his face with candy (sugar) because oxygen and sugar are created.
Each film location can hold much more material, if required. In our last example, in the jungle, we only used the log bridge over the river. Additional information could be stored next to Pumbaa as he clears the water hole with bad gas, next to Simba and Nala flirting as adults feeling the love, and on the pathway where Pumbaa gets stuck under the tree root, running for his life.
The Lion King can restore the pride of any learner and hold an abundance of material. If you’re looking to be a mighty student and make all bell curves beware, look no further than your favorite entertainment!
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