biology

Pacific Northwest tree octopus

Pacific Northwest tree octopus 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 Pacific Northwest tree octopus rather than just read about it. In short: The Pacific Northwest tree octopus is an Internet hoax created in 1998 by a humor writer under the pseudonym Lyle Zapato. Since its creation, the Pacific Northwest tree octopus website has been commonly referenced in Internet literacy classes in schools and has been used in multiple studies demonstrating children's gullibility regarding online sources of information.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

The Pacific Northwest tree octopus is an Internet hoax created in 1998 by a humor writer under the pseudonym Lyle Zapato. Since its creation, the Pacific Northwest tree octopus website has been commonly referenced in Internet literacy classes in schools and has been used in multiple studies demonstrating children's gullibility regarding online sources of information.

Description This fictitious endangered species of cephalopod was given the Latin name Octopus paxarbolis (the species name being coined from Latin pax, the root of Pacific, and Spanish arbol meaning "tree"). It was purportedly able to live both on land and in water, and was said to live in the Olympic National Forest and nearby rivers, spawning in water where its eggs are laid. The Pacific Northwest tree octopus was said to prey on insects, small vertebrates, and bird eggs. Its major predator was said to be the Sasquatch, a mythical creature said to inhabit the same region, as well as bald eagles and cats. The conceit of the website was that the Pacific Northwest tree octopus was an endangered species, threatened by habitat loss, overexploitation for the fashion industry during the early 20th century, and eradication as a nuisance animal by loggers.

Reception and legacy The tree octopus hoax website was used in a 2007 study on 13-year-old U.S. school children's ability to critically evaluate online information for reliability. A 2018 study replicated the experiment in a Dutch school class of 27 children. The 2007 U.S. study found that slightly more than half (27) of the 53 school children taking part in the study reported the website as being very reliable. Only 6 out of the 53 school children (11%) viewed the website as unreliable. Each of these 6 school children had just participated in a lesson that used this website to teach them to be suspicious of information online. In the 2017 Dutch study only 2 out of the total 27 school children (7%) recognized that the website was a hoax. In 2018, the website was selected as one of 30 websites to form the initial collection of the Library of Congress's Web Culture's Web Archive.

See also Drop bear Spaghetti-tree hoax Dihydrogen monoxide hoax

References

External links Official site "New Literacies for New Times: Preparing our Students for the 21st Century" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2012-02-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) (178 KiB) Professor Leu's teaching tool.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pacific Northwest tree octopus

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pacific Northwest tree octopus 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 Pacific Northwest tree octopus 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 Pacific Northwest tree octopus 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 Pacific Northwest tree octopus

In research: Pacific Northwest tree octopus 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 Pacific Northwest tree octopus 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: Pacific Northwest tree octopus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1998 hoaxes, Animal websites, Fictional endangered and extinct species, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pacific Northwest tree octopus 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 Pacific Northwest tree octopus in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Pacific Northwest tree octopus in simple terms?

Why does Pacific Northwest tree octopus 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 Pacific Northwest tree octopus?

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 Pacific Northwest tree octopus.