biology

Marcy Cottrell Houle

Marcy Cottrell Houle 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 Marcy Cottrell Houle rather than just read about it. In short: Marcy Cottrell Houle (born August 1, 1953) is an American writer and wildlife biologist. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Marcy Cottrell Houle (born August 1, 1953) is an American writer and wildlife biologist. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Life and career Marcy Houle is a fifth-generation Oregonian, the daughter of George (a prominent orthopedic surgeon) and Margaret Cottrell. When she was born, her family lived on 13 acres (5.3 ha) of old-growth forest in southwest Portland. Her early interest in biology was fostered by exploring her own backyard, and she and her two sisters also traveled frequently to Vancouver Island and backpacked in Oregon forests. Houle attended Colorado College in Colorado Springs, where she studied biology. She spent summers after college working for the Colorado Division of Wildlife studying peregrine falcons near Chimney Rock National Monument, an experience she documented in her 1991 book Wings for My Flight: The Peregrine Falcons of Chimney Rock. She married John Houle in 1982; they lived on Sauvie Island. After enrolling in Oregon State University to earn a master's in biology, she studied raptors on Zumwalt Prairie for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an experience she documented in her 1995 book The Prairie Keepers: Secrets of the Zumwalt. Her research there helped lead to the prairie becoming a nature preserve. Houle's 30-year interest in Forest Park in Portland culminated in a wildlife and vegetation study that the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) published in 1988 as One City's Wilderness: Portland's Forest Park. OHS published a second edition of the book in 1996, and in 2010 Oregon State University Press published the third edition. The third edition includes maps of the park by cartographer Erik Goetze and images by photographers Gerry Carr and Lois Miller. In addition to Wings for My Flight and One City's Wilderness, her publications include a third book, The Prairie Keepers: Secrets of the Zumwalt. Her work has also appeared in The Nature Conservancy Magazine, Reader's Digest, The New York Times, and other periodicals.

Awards and honors Wings for My Flight was awarded an Oregon Book Award for literary nonfiction in 1991, a Christopher Award in 1992, and the same year New York Public Library named the book one of the Best Books for the Teenaged. The Prairie Keepers was named a Booklist Editor's Choice. It was also named an Earth Day Reader's Selection by The New York Times.

Works One City's Wilderness: Portland's Forest Park (2010), [1996], [1988] Wings For My Flight: The Peregrine Falcons of Chimney Rock (1991) The Prairie Keepers: Secrets of the Zumwalt (1995) The Gift of Caring: Saving Our Parents from the Perils of Modern Healthcare (2015) A Generous Nature: Lives Transformed by Oregon (2019) Forest Park: Exploring Portland's Natural Sanctuary (2023) The Gift of Aging: Growing Older with Purpose, Planning and Positivity (2023)

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Marcy Cottrell Houle

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Marcy Cottrell Houle 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 Marcy Cottrell Houle 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 Marcy Cottrell Houle 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 Marcy Cottrell Houle

In research: Marcy Cottrell Houle 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 Marcy Cottrell Houle 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: Marcy Cottrell Houle is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1953 births, 20th-century American biologists, 20th-century American non-fiction writers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Marcy Cottrell Houle 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 Marcy Cottrell Houle in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Marcy Cottrell Houle 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 Marcy Cottrell Houle out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Marcy Cottrell Houle in simple terms?

Marcy Cottrell Houle (born August 1, 1953) is an American writer and wildlife biologist. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Why does Marcy Cottrell Houle 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 Marcy Cottrell Houle?

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 Marcy Cottrell Houle.