astronomy

Sy Montgomery

Sy Montgomery is a astronomy 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 Sy Montgomery rather than just read about it. In short: Sy Montgomery (born February 7, 1958) is an American naturalist, author, and scriptwriter who writes for children as well as adults. Biography Early life and education Montgomery was born on February 7, 1958, in Frankfurt, Germany, to Austin and Willa Montgomery.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Sy Montgomery (born February 7, 1958) is an American naturalist, author, and scriptwriter who writes for children as well as adults.

Biography

Early life and education Montgomery was born on February 7, 1958, in Frankfurt, Germany, to Austin and Willa Montgomery. Her father was a brigadier general in the US Army; her mother was a pilot, who also worked for the FBI. As a child she lived in Frankfurt; Brooklyn, New York; Alexandria, Virginia; and Westfield, New Jersey. She is a 1975 graduate of Westfield High School and a 1979 graduate of Syracuse University, a triple major with dual degrees in magazine journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and in French language and literature and in psychology from the College of Arts and Sciences. She has been awarded four honorary doctorate degrees: an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Keene State College in 2004 and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from both Franklin Pierce University and Southern New Hampshire University in 2011, and Lesley University.

Career She is author of 38 books, including The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness, which was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction and was on The New York Times Best Seller list. Her popular book The Good Good Pig is the international bestselling memoir of life with her pig, Christopher Hogwood. National best sellers listed on The New York Times Best Seller list include Of Time and Turtles, How To Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in 13 Animals, and Becoming a Good Creature (a picture book for children). Other notable titles include Journey of the Pink Dolphins, Spell of the Tiger, and Search for the Golden Moon Bear. Her book for children, Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea was the recipient of the 2007 Orbis Pictus Award and was selected as an Honor book for the Sibert Medal. Her book Kakapo Rescue: Saving The World's Strangest Parrot won the Sibert Medal in 2010. She is the winner of the 2009 New England Independent Booksellers Association Nonfiction Award, the 2010 Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award, the Henry Bergh Award for Nonfiction (given by the ASPCA for Humane Education) and dozens of other honors. For a half-hour National Geographic segment, she scripted and appeared in Spell of the Tiger, based on her book of the same title. Also for National Geographic, she developed and scripted Mother Bear Man based on the work of Ben Kilham, who raises and releases orphaned American black bears, which won a Chris Award. Author Vicki Croke asked Sy what she has learned, not just about an animal's natural history, but lessons about life. Sy answered: "How to be a good creature. How do you be compassionate?… I think that animals teach compassion better than anything else and compassion doesn't necessarily just mean a little mouse with a sore foot and you try to fix it. It means getting yourself inside the mind and heart of someone else. Seeing someone's soul, looking for their truth. Animals teach you all of that and that's how you get compassion and heart."

Personal life She lives in Hancock, New Hampshire, with her husband, writer Howard Mansfield.

Awards and honors 2024 Cook Prize for The Book of Turtles 2021 Sarah Josepha Hale Award (to a New England author for "a distinguished body of work in the field of literature and Letters") 2021 Named a Literary Light by the Associates of the Boston Public Library 2019 Earthwatch International Travel fellowship to join the Tracking Wild Dogs expedition 2019 Winner of the John Burroughs Association Riverby Award for Magnificent Migrations: On Safari with African's Last Great Herds 2018 New York Times bestseller for How to Be a Good Creature 2017 Thoreau Prize, granted to "an accomplished writer who embodies the spirit of Thoreau" 2016 New England Independent Booksellers Association New England Book Award for Nonfiction 2016 American Association for the Advancement of Science / Subaru SB&F Winning Middle Grades Science Book 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction finalist for The Soul of an Octopus New England Independent Booksellers Association, Nonfiction award (lifetime achievement) ASPCA Henry Bergh Award for Nonfiction (lifetime achievement) 2013 American Association for the Advancement of Science Science Book and Film Award for children's nonfiction, Temple Grandin: How the Woman Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World 2011 Sibert Medal winner for Kakapo Rescue: Saving The World's Strangest Parrot 2010 The Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Award for Nonfiction

Selected works

For adults 1991, The Curious Naturalist: Nature's Everyday Mysteries 1995, Seasons of the Wild 1995, Spell of the Tiger: The Man-eaters of the Sunderbans 2000, Journey of the Pink Dolphins: An Amazon quest 2000, Walking with the Great Apes 2002, The Wild out Your Window 2002, Search for the Golden Moon Bear: Science and Adventure in Pursuit of a New Species 2006, The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood 2010, Birdology 2015, The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness 2018, How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals, illustrated by Rebecca Green (A New York Times bestseller) 2021, The Hummingbirds' Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings 2022, The Hawk's Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty 2023, Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell 2024, Secrets of the Octopus 2024, What the Chicken Knows

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sy Montgomery

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sy Montgomery claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, 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 Sy Montgomery 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 Sy Montgomery 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 Sy Montgomery

In research: Sy Montgomery appears in astronomy 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 Sy Montgomery 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: Sy Montgomery is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1958 births, American animal welfare scholars, American children's writers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sy Montgomery 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 Sy Montgomery in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Sy Montgomery in simple terms?

Sy Montgomery (born February 7, 1958) is an American naturalist, author, and scriptwriter who writes for children as well as adults. Biography Early life and education Montgomery was born on February 7, 1958, in Frankfurt, Germany, to Austin and Willa Montgomery.

Why does Sy Montgomery matter?

Because it connects several astronomy 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 Sy Montgomery?

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 Sy Montgomery.