science

Teens in the Wild

Teens in the Wild 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 Teens in the Wild rather than just read about it. In short: Teens in the Wild is an Irish observational documentary television series broadcast on RTÉ One. The series was presented by the clinical psychologist David Coleman, who previously appeared in the television series Families in Trouble.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Teens in the Wild is an Irish observational documentary television series broadcast on RTÉ One. The series was presented by the clinical psychologist David Coleman, who previously appeared in the television series Families in Trouble. The first series, broadcast in four parts over four weeks, followed six male teenagers, each with their own individual behavioural difficulties, as they undertook a three-week activity programme at Delphi Adventure in Connemara, County Galway during September 2008. It commenced broadcasting on 2 February 2009, airing each Monday at 21:30. The series producer, Christine Thornton, was reported as stating that the series would demonstrate "often dramatic and emotional insights" in relation to teenaged behaviour. The camp was declared a "once-off" experience by Coleman in a live web chat held on RTÉ.ie on 11 February 2009. He also claimed that he would be open to doing a similar series involving teenage girls, since this one involved boys exclusively. To supplement the show, Coleman initiated a regular slot focusing on teenage issues each Wednesday on the daytime television programme, Seoige. A second series aired in 2010, this time involving an all female cast.

Show history

Series one Six male teenagers took part in the first series of Teens in the Wild. Fifteen-year-old Mikey from County Westmeath has a habit of being verbally abusive both at home and in school. He has been known to unexpectedly disappear for several hours on numerous occasions. He is regularly involved in street brawls. Fifteen-year-old Jamie O’Herlihy from County Cork has been suspended from school on numerous occasions and regularly engages in disputes with her own mother. Jamie came out as transgender in 2016 Fifteen-year-old William from Castlebar, County Mayo, is regularly involved in street fighting and has been told he may be permanently excluded from school. Fifteen-year-old Kyle from Tralee, County Kerry, is unmotivated and this presents difficulties at school. Sixteen-year-old Noel from Dublin has a quick temper, is regularly in trouble with his parents and seems to have difficulty recognising authority. Fifteen-year-old Shane from County Kildare was a former a high achiever in school but has in the past year left without offering an explanation.

Series two RTÉ are currently requesting a new batch of troubled teenagers to come forward to feature in a second series. It has been reported that they are all in fact to be females. The second series of Teens in the Wild began in 2010. The Irish Times reviewer Kevin Courtney noted the return of Coleman to Irish television screens as "the agony uncle to another group of troubled teenagers, this time six girls with enough collective baggage to sink the Titanic".

Reception Whilst reaction from participants in the web chat which followed series one was generally positive, some media outlets gave a negative response to the show. The Irish Independent noted the genre which the series placed itself in as being an "observational documentary" as opposed to reality television and questioned how the young people involved in the show could cope with their personal traumas in front of the cameras and general public.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Teens in the Wild

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Teens in the Wild 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 Teens in the Wild 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 Teens in the Wild 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 Teens in the Wild

In research: Teens in the Wild 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 Teens in the Wild 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: Teens in the Wild is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Documentaries about psychology, Irish documentary television series, Irish reality television series, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Teens in the Wild 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 Teens in the Wild in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Teens in the Wild in simple terms?

Why does Teens in the Wild 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 Teens in the Wild?

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 Teens in the Wild.