science

My Life as a Turkey

My Life as a Turkey is a science 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 My Life as a Turkey rather than just read about it. In short: "My Life as a Turkey" is a television episode that premiered in 2011 in the UK on BBC (season 30 of the series Natural World, August 1) and in the US on PBS (season 30 of the series Nature, November 16). It won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Nature Programming.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

"My Life as a Turkey" is a television episode that premiered in 2011 in the UK on BBC (season 30 of the series Natural World, August 1) and in the US on PBS (season 30 of the series Nature, November 16). It won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Nature Programming. It was based on the book Illumination in the Flatwoods by naturalist Joe Hutto, who also co-wrote and hosted the TV program.

Synopsis My Life as a Turkey describes how Hutto raised a brood of wild turkeys. Hutto narrates over a re-creation of his time living with the birds, with actor Jeff Palmer playing Hutto. The turkey chicks imprinted on Hutto as they came out of the egg. He then led them on walks through the Florida woods. He describes how he learned their language and was impressed by their instincts and native intelligence. Eventually, after about a year, they became independent of him. The film shows footage of turkeys at all these ages, and is a re-enactment of the material described in Hutto's book.

Development In order to get the footage of Palmer living with wild turkeys, PBS recreated Hutto's entire experiment over the course of a year, with Palmer being imprinted by and living with the turkeys. Hutto stated in an interview that they were extremely lucky to have turkeys that had similar personalities to the ones in his book.

Reception and media coverage Hutto has been profiled in newspapers, with a focus on the program and book. The book was mentioned in The New Yorker.

Awards Emmy - Outstanding Nature Programming (2012) Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival - Best Writing (2011)

References

External links "My Life as a Turkey" at IMDb My Life as a Turkey (viewable at Daily Motion) My Life as a Turkey (viewable online at PBS) My Life as a Turkey (clips online at BBC)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with My Life as a Turkey

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what My Life as a Turkey claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, 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 My Life as a Turkey 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 My Life as a Turkey 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 My Life as a Turkey

In research: My Life as a Turkey appears in science 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 My Life as a Turkey 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: My Life as a Turkey is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Documentary films about Florida, Documentary films about birds, Human–animal interaction, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for My Life as a Turkey 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 My Life as a Turkey in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what My Life as a Turkey 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 My Life as a Turkey out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is My Life as a Turkey in simple terms?

Why does My Life as a Turkey matter?

Because it connects several science 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 My Life as a Turkey?

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 My Life as a Turkey.