biology

Kirsty Durward

Kirsty Durward is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kirsty Durward rather than just read about it. In short: Kirsty Elizabeth Gerlach (née Durward; 1958 or 1959 – 13 September 2020) was a New Zealand gymnast. She won a bronze medal representing her country in the women's all-around team event at the 1978 Commonwealth Games.

Key takeaways

Kirsty Durward belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kirsty Durward to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kirsty Durward from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kirsty Elizabeth Gerlach (née Durward; 1958 or 1959 – 13 September 2020) was a New Zealand gymnast. She won a bronze medal representing her country in the women's all-around team event at the 1978 Commonwealth Games.

Biography Gerlach was born Kirsty Elizabeth Durward in Te Puke in about 1959, one of six children of Lois and Peter Durward. She was educated at Rotorua Girls' High School, becoming a national gymnastics champion, and won a full scholarship to California State University, Long Beach when she was 17 years old. Durward was recruited to Long Beach State by coach Marion Duncan, but Duncan had departed by the time that Durward arrived. From 1977 to 1980, Durward won four consecutive silver medals in vault at the AIAW National Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Championships. She was inducted into the Long Beach State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1997. Durward represented New Zealand at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, placing tenth in the women's individual all-around competition, and winning the bronze medal—alongside Lynette Brake, Rowena Davis and Deborah Hurst—in the women's team all-around. In 1981, Durward married her Long Beach State gymnastics coach, Steve Gerlach. The couple went on to have four children, and lived between New Zealand and the United States. Initially, Steve Gerlach continued coaching in New Zealand and overseas, and Kirsty Gerlach established an audiology practice in Rotorua. They settled permanently at Lake Ōkareka, near Rotorua, in 2002. Kirsty Gerlach was diagnosed with motor neuron disease in 2017, and shortly after had to retire from her 33-year career as an audiologist. A 25-minute documentary film, called Kirsty, about Gerlach's illness, was made by a film student, Keziah Manabat, from the South Seas Film and TV School, in 2019, and was a finalist at the 2020 Watersprite Film Festival in Britain. Gerlach died from her illness on 13 September 2020.

References

External links Kirsty Durward at the Commonwealth Games Federation (archived) 1980 AIAW National Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Championships – Durward's vaults from 1:54 on YouTube

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kirsty Durward

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kirsty Durward claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kirsty Durward before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kirsty Durward ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kirsty Durward

In research: Kirsty Durward appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kirsty Durward in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kirsty Durward is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1950s births, 2020 deaths, 20th-century New Zealand sportswomen, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kirsty Durward outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kirsty Durward in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kirsty Durward means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kirsty Durward out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kirsty Durward in simple terms?

Why does Kirsty Durward matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kirsty Durward?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kirsty Durward.