science

Smiling Bears

Smiling Bears 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 Smiling Bears rather than just read about it. In short: Smiling Bears: A Zookeeper Explores the Behavior and Emotional Life of Bears is a 2009 book by Canadian writer Else Poulsen, first published by Greystone Books. In the book, the author chronicles her insights gleaned as a zookeeper responsible for rehabilitating "bears in crisis".

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Smiling Bears: A Zookeeper Explores the Behavior and Emotional Life of Bears is a 2009 book by Canadian writer Else Poulsen, first published by Greystone Books. In the book, the author chronicles her insights gleaned as a zookeeper responsible for rehabilitating "bears in crisis". Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson called Smiling Bears "An inspiring trip into the minds and reality of bears."

Awards and honours Smiling Bears received shortlist recognition for the 2010 "Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction".

See also List of Edna Staebler Award recipients

References

External links Else Poulsen, Home page. Retrieved 23 November 2012

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Smiling Bears

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Smiling Bears 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 Smiling Bears 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 Smiling Bears 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 Smiling Bears

In research: Smiling Bears 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 Smiling Bears 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: Smiling Bears is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2009 non-fiction books, Canadian travel books, Non-fiction books about bears, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Smiling Bears 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 Smiling Bears in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Smiling Bears in simple terms?

Why does Smiling Bears 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 Smiling Bears?

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 Smiling Bears.