Oxford High School
AP Biology Summer Assignment
Instructor: L. Burnett
Welcome to AP Biology!
The two main goals of AP Biology are to help you develop a conceptual
framework for modern biology and to gain a deeper appreciation of science
as a process (as opposed to an accumulation of facts). Because of the rapid
pace of discovery in the life sciences our primary emphasis is on developing
an understanding of unifying concepts that connect the major topics of
biology. The AP Biology Curriculum centers around the four Big Ideas and
you will need to not only know these but also understand how they all relate:
- Big Idea 1: The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life.
- Big Idea 2: Biological systems utilize free energy and molecular building blocks to grow,
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to reproduce and to maintain dynamic homeostasis.
Big Idea 3: Living systems store, retrieve, transmit and respond to information essential
to life processes.
Big Idea 4: Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions possess
complex properties.
What to do before the first day of school:
 (Highly suggested but not mandatory) Purchase a copy of 5 Steps to a 5 by Mark Anestis
(Amazon or your local book store). It must be an addition published after 2012, because
the course was redesigned in 2013.
 AP Biology was designed by a select group of college professors and high school science teachers
to be equivalent to an introductory college biology course. Visit the College Board site below to
explore what an AP Biology course is like:
o https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/exploreap?affiliateId=apcentral&bannerId=exploreap
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o We will engage in a great deal of collaborative learning.
o I need a clear, easy to understand e-mail address for you. It is great for sharing
information and documents; however, expect to use Blackboard most of the time.
o Please email me to introduce yourself. I’d like to know some of your immediate and long
term goals as well as why you decided to take AP Biology. My email address is
lburnett.oh@oxford.k12.al.us. I will be checking it all summer. If you encounter
problems with your summer assignment, please contact me through that email as well.
 We have a small problem in AP Biology. Each year new advances in science are discovered but
the length of the school year (and when the test occurs) stays the same. What does this mean?
We are short on time. In order to cover ALL of the material, you are responsible for reviewing
the Chemistry section on your own. Here is what you are to do:
o Your 5 Step book is an amazing resource, if you get it, use it!!! It will definitely help you
to review some of the chemistry that you will need!
o Watch the following two YouTube videos. These are called Crash Courses with Hank
Green. These two videos are great chemistry reviews.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVT3Y3_gHGg&list=PL6C159EF1A62143A2&index=11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnQe0xW_JY4&list=PL6C159EF1A62143A2&index=8
Also, get to know Mr. Anderson on Bozemanscience.com. We will be using his video
tutorials often.
Print and complete the “Key Terminology” Sheet.
As an AP Biology student the expectation is that if you don’t know it, find it out!! Use all
of your resources!!!
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Because vocabulary in this course can be a stumbling block, you need to take some time to
review the scientific Latin/Greek roots that form many of our scientific terms.
o Print and complete the “Biology Prefixes and Suffixes”. These should have been
learned in Pre-AP Biology, so this should just be review! It will make life in AP Biology
much easier if you KNOW these roots.
Be prepared for a quiz during the first couple of days!!! This quiz will be on Chemistry and some
common biology terms, as well as from the prefixes and suffixes.
Go to biologycorner.com, and read through each lab. You may also want to Google “lab bench,”
then choose www.phschool.com to find these labs. This will help familiarize you with many of the
activities you can expect to do this year.
All assignments are due on the first Friday of school and are worth a total of 100 points. Late
assignments will automatically result in a 50 point deduction.
Be prepared for a 100 point test during the first full week of school on the terminology and labs.
I truly am looking forward to working with you next year! I hope you enjoy AP Biology as much as I
enjoy teaching it. Don’t procrastinate on the summer assignments. If you work a little bit each week, you
will complete them with ease. There’s nothing more horrible than realizing you are way behind and don’t
have time to catch up. Be prepared, but have a wonderful summer!!!
Mrs. Burnett 
AP Biology Essential Chemistry
This is a review of basic chemistry – we will not spend any class time on these concepts as they
should have been learned in chemistry. Please make sure that you know them and if not, be sure
to study through them. Please put this all in your AP Biology three ring (1 ½ or 2 in.) binder!
1. Contrast the term element with compound.
2. Know the symbols of the following elements and their charge:
a. Carbon
b. Hydrogen
c. Oxygen
d. Nitrogen
e. Phosphorus
f. Sulfur
3. Label the diagram below and define the terms that you label.
4. Contrast the terms atomic mass and atomic number.
5. What is the difference between the terms atomic mass and atomic weight?
6. What is an isotope and what is “special” about radioactive isotopes?
7. What determines interactions between atoms? Why are valence electrons important?
8. Define the following terms:
a. Chemical bond
b. Covalent bond
c. Single bond
d. Double bond
e. Electronegativity
f. Nonpolar covalent bond
g. Polar covalent bond
9. What is the difference between a structural and molecular formula?
10. Write the molecular formula for the following compounds.
a. Oxygen gas
b. Carbon dioxide
c. Glucose
d. Phosphate
e. Ammonia
f. Water (you would be surprised at how many people miss this!!!)
11. How do ionic bonds compare with covalent bonds?
12. Compare and contrast hydrogen bonds and van der Waals interactions.
13. Why is water considered a polar molecule?
14. For each of the below listed properties of water – briefly define the property, and then
explain how water’s polar nature and polar covalent bonds contribute to the water
special property.
a. Cohesion
b. Adhesion
c. Surface tension
d. High specific heat
e. Heat of vaporization
f. Evaporative cooling
15. Define the following terms:
a. Solute
b. Solvent
c. Aqueous solution
d. Hydrophilic
e. Hydrophobic
f. Molarity
16. What defines an acid and a base?
17. Why are small changes in pH so important in biology?
18. What is a buffer? Give an example on how they would work in a living organism.
19. What is acid precipitation and why is it important to living organisms?
20. Why is organic chemistry so important in the study of biology?
21. What is special about carbon that makes it the central atom in the chemistry of life?
22. Be familiar with each of the following functional groups. Write it’s molecular formula and
the functional properties.
a. Hydroxyl
b. Carbonyl
c. Carboxyl
d. Amino
e. Sulfhydryl
f. Phosphate
Biology Prefixes and SuffixesThe Language of Science
The main reason students find it difficult to understand science is because of all the words that
are hard to write, spell, and read. Actually, scientific vocabulary is a mix of small words that are
linked together to have different meanings. If you learn the meanings of the little words, you'll
find scientific vocabulary much easier to understand. Find the mean to the following Greek/Latin
root words.
Word
Meaning
Word
a / an
hemo
meso
hyper
leuco
hypo
aero
intra
anti
-itis
amphi
lateral
aqua / hydro
-logy
arthro
-lysis
auto
-meter
bi / di
mono
bio
morph
cephal
micro
chloro
macro
chromo
multi / poly
cide
pod
cyto
-phobia
derm
-philia
haplo
proto
ecto (exo)
photo
endo
psuedo
epi
synthesis
gastro
sub
genesis
troph
herba
therm
Meaning
hetero
tri
homo
zoo, zoa
ov
-tropism
kary
-taxis
neuro
-stasis
soma
zyg / zygous
saccharo
phago
primi / archea
path / pathy
phyll
sym / syn
Define the following important biological terms:
1. Biology
2. Cytolysis
3. Protozoan
4. Epidermis
5. Homeostasis
6. Exoskeleton
7. Abiotic
8. Pathogen
9. Psuedopod
10. Hemophilia
11. Endocystosis
12. Herbicide
13. Anaerobic
14. Bilateral
15. Autotroph
16. Monosaccharide
17. Arthropod
18. Polymorphic
19. Hypothermia
20. Biogenesis
21. Hydrophilic
22. Endosymbiois
23. Catalyst
24. Coenzyme
25. Activation Energy
26. Endergonic Reaction
27. Electron Transfer Chain
28. ATP
29. Somatic Cells
30. Tumor Suppressors
31. Asexual Reproduction
32. Genetic Recombination
33. Epistasis
34. Pleiotropy
35. Polyploidy
36. Crossing Over
37. Semiconservative Replication
38. Transcription
39. Translation
40. Wobble Effect
41. Promoter
42. Operator
43. Operon
44. Repressor
45. PCR
46. Reverse Transcriptase
47. Transgenic
48. Natural Selection
49. Comparative Morphology
50. Polymorphism
51. Microevolution
52. Genetic Divergence
53. Temporal Isolation
54. Sympatric Speciation
55. Cladogram
56. Chemoautotroph
57. Gram staining
58. Plasmid
59. Conjugation
60. Cyclic-AMP
61. Alternation of Generations
62. Angiosperm
63. Gymnosperm
64. Eudicot
65. Saprobe
66. Mycorrhiza
67. Cephalization
68. Coelom
69. Epithelium
70. Torsion
71. Chordate
72. Arboreal
73. Terrestrial
74. Riparian Zone
75. Stimulus
76. Cotyledon
77. Transpiration
78. Parthenogenesis
79. Proboscis
80. Turgor Pressure
81. Phototropism
82. Abscission
83. Stem Cells
84. Neuron
85. Cephalization
86. Action Potential
87. Acetylcholine
88. Antidiuretic Hormone
89. Oxytocin
90. Follicle-Stimulating Hormone
91. Negative Feedback Loop
92. Glucagon
93. Calcitonin
94. Lymphocytes
95. Peptidoglycan
96. Histamine
97. Hemoglobin
98. Erythropoietin
99. Pepsinogen
100. Trypsin
101. Renin
102. Zygote
103. Germ Layers
104. Density-Independent Factor
105. Symbiosis
106. Ecological Succession
107. Detritivore
108. Biological Magnification
109. Primary Productivity
110. Eutrophication
111. Pheromone
112. EXHAUSTION