science

Wild New World

Wild New World 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 Wild New World rather than just read about it. In short: Wild New World (also known as Prehistoric America) is a six-part BBC documentary series about Ice Age North America that describes the prehistory, landscape and wildlife of the continent from the arrival of humans to the welcome of the Ice Age. It was first transmitted in the UK & JP on BBC Two from 3 October to 7 November 2002.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Wild New World (also known as Prehistoric America) is a six-part BBC documentary series about Ice Age North America that describes the prehistory, landscape and wildlife of the continent from the arrival of humans to the welcome of the Ice Age. It was first transmitted in the UK & JP on BBC Two from 3 October to 7 November 2002. Like several other BBC programmes, it contains both computer graphics and real-life animals. Occasionally, footage of non-American counterparts of the extinct North American beasts (like the American lion and the American cheetah) are used in juxtaposition with footage of native American animals, like the pronghorn. Wild New World was co-produced by the BBC Natural History Unit and Discovery Channel. The music was composed by Barnaby Taylor and performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra. The series was narrated by Jack Fortune and produced by Miles Barton. The series forms part of the Coordinator History Unit's Continents strand. It was preceded by Wild Africa in 2001 and followed by Wild Down Under in 2003.

Production The series was announced by the BBC with the working title All American Animals, but it was later changed to Wild New World.

Episodes All episode names were given from BBC website. All broadcast dates refer to the original UK transmission. Each of the episode consists with the prehistory and wildlife of a particular region in the United States, except for final episode which is about various modern American animals. 2.79 million viewers watched the first episode.

Themes The show's episodes offer several common themes, the main one being the coming of humans to America via the Ice Age's land bridge and causing the extinction of the North American megafauna featured in the episodes. Another BBC programme, Monsters We Met picks up and elaborates on this topic in greater detail. A more recent Discovery show, Prehistoric, also features scenic elements of Prehistoric America, such as the present melting away to reveal the past, as well as creatures already shown by the show, like the American mastodon, Arctodus and Columbian mammoth.

Merchandise

DVD In United States and Canada, a two-disc DVD format was released under the title "Prehistoric America" on 7 September 2004 by BBC Warner. The series was included with two additional programmes:

Grand Canyon – From Dinosaurs to Dams Everglades To Hell and Back Other: Fact Files Documentary A three-disc DVD format was released in China for Region 6 on 12 June 2008 by Excel Media.

Books In United Kingdom, an accompanying hardcover format was written by Miles Barton, Nigel Bean, Stephen Dunleavy, Ian Gray and Adam White, with foreword by D. Bruce Means. It was released on 19 September 2002 and published by BBC Worldwide. (ISBN 0-563-53425-7) The companion volume for the US market, Prehistoric America: A Journey through the Ice Age and Beyond, was published by the Yale University Press on 8 February 2003.(ISBN 0-300-09819-7)

See also Ice Age Giants The Blue Planet Walking with Dinosaurs Walking with Beasts Walking with Monsters Walking with Cavemen Monsters We Met

References

External links Wild New World at BBC Online Wild New World at BBC Online Wild New World at Hulu

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wild New World

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wild New World 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 Wild New World 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 Wild New World 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 Wild New World

In research: Wild New World 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 Wild New World 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: Wild New World is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2000s British documentary television series, 2002 British television series debuts, 2002 British television series endings, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wild New World 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 Wild New World in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Wild New World in simple terms?

Why does Wild New World 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 Wild New World?

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 Wild New World.