AP World History
Summer Assignment
2015-2016 School Year
Mr. Bednarski, Mrs. Hess, Mrs. Lane
*Course Description:
The purpose of the AP World History course is to develop greater understanding of the evolution of global processes and
contacts, in interaction with different types of human societies. This understanding is advanced through a combination
of selective factual knowledge and appropriate analytical skills. The course highlights the nature of changes in
international frameworks and their causes and consequences, as well as comparisons among major societies. The course
builds on an understanding of cultural, institutional, and technological precedents that, along with geography, set the
human stage. Periodization, explicitly discussed, forms an organizing principle for dealing with change and continuity
throughout the course, along with consistent attention to contacts among societies that form the core of world history
as a field of study
*Course Themes:
AP World History highlights five overarching themes that receive equal attention throughout the course:
1. Interactions between humans and the environment
2. Development and interaction of cultures
3. State-building, expansion, and conflict
4. Creation, expansion, and interaction of economic systems
5. Development and transformation of social structures

Students are expected to complete a summer assignment. The assignment will be due on the first day of class.
All assignments can be found on the THS social studies website. The assignment consists of three parts:
o
Part A – Purchase book: AP World History: An Essential Coursebook, 2nd Ed Paperback
by Ethel Wood (Author), New or Used is fine.
 Read Introduction pp. 6- to the top of 11
 Read Unit 1, pp. 21-68 (You will be tested on this information)
 Feel free to create notes and/or outlines of material to aid in studying
o
Part B – Vocabulary sheet
 Students will complete the vocab sheet for each term on the worksheet provided
 For each term students must:
 Define the term in their own words
 Briefly explain its significance/impact
 Draw an image of the term (Images cannot be printed and must
be hand-drawn)
o
Part C – Unit Questions: Use attached chart to answer the 10 multiple choice questions at the end of
Unit 1. Provide a summary of the question and analysis of the correct answer.
Part B
Each term must be handwritten and completed on the worksheets provided.
Word
Agriculture
Bipedalism
Catal Hayuk
Cultural
diffusion
Division of
labor
Horticulture
Independent
invention
Jericho
Neolithic
Revolution
Paleolithic Age
Surplus
5 to 7 word Definition
Significance/Impact
Image
Polytheism
Pastoralism
Specialization
Demography
Migration
Analects
Aryans
Assyrians
Babylonians
Book of the
Dead
Chavin
City-state
civilization
Confucianism
Cultural
hearths
Cuneiform
Citadel
Dravidian
Dynastic cycle
Harappa
Hittites
Mandate of
Heaven
matrilineal
Minoans
Mohenjo daro
Monsoons
Olmec
Patriarchy
Semitic
Shaman
Shang Dynasty
Social mobility
Sumerians
Theocracy
Tribute
Vassals
Amon-Re
Epic of
Gilgamesh
Periodization
Part C
Use attached chart to answer 10 questions at the end of Unit 1. Neatly Hand write answers.
Question
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Summarize Question
Correct
Answer
Explanation/evidence supporting your choice