AP Biology: Summer Assignment
The major purpose of the summer assignment is to introduce you to the wide spectrum of modern
biology and to familiarize you with your textbook and other relevant recourses that you may be
using throughout the year. This book contains a LOT of information. We will not be covering
everything in the book so don’t get overwhelmed as you work your way through the text. Most,
but not all chapters will be covered in the summer assignment. Remember all work MUST be of
college quality, fully complete, and most importantly YOUR OWN. If I find that the work is not
your own, you subsequently forfeit your seat in the class. Make sure you are specific with all of
your descriptions. One sentence is not acceptable. If you lose the question papers the documents
will be posted on my website at, http://teacherweb.com/NY/CheektowagaSloan/MrHondzinski/h0.stm under the AP Documents link. Please become familiar with this
website, you will be using it all year.
Each of the due dates and amount of work due for each as follows:
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Friday August 1 2014
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Friday August 15th 2014
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Wednesday September 3rd 2014: First Day of School
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Part 1 – chapter explorations:
o Unit 1 – Chemistry and Cells
o Unit 2 – Genetics
Part 1 – Chapter explorations:
o Unit 3 – Evolution
o Unit 4 – The Evolutionary History of Life
o Unit 5 – Plants Form and Function
Part 1 – Chapter explorations:
o Unit 6 – Animals Form and Function
o Unit 7 – Ecology
Part 2 – Big Ideas in Biology
Part 3 – What Kind of Scientist are you? – Minimum 1 Typed Page
Assignments can be turned in one of three ways:
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Put in my mailbox at school. The school office hours will be from 9:00A.M. to 1:00
P.M.
US Mail: 6490 Taylor Rd Lot 20, Hamburg, NY 14075. Must be postmarked by the
due date. The post office on William St will postmark until midnight.
e-mail – bhondzinski@csufsd.org, or my home e-mail bdhondo@verizon.net. Please
send to both if you are emailing. If you are handing in the assignments by e-mail, I
still need to see your pictures, and should be handed in using one of the other two
methods.
*You must also sign up for Remind 101*; Text, @1415apb to 716-312-4522, or
by email 1415apb@mail.remind101.com. There will be important updates and reminders,
or summer assignments updates sent out. Please sign up now, it is a requirement!!
WARNING! If you fail to turn in any of the three parts of the summer
assignment you will NOT be allowed to take AP Biology.
Your textbook is an on-line textbook. You will log onto the website:
http://www.pearsonmylabandmastering.com/northamerica/masteringbiology/
Once on the site you will click to register as a student, click US, then click that you have an
access code. Click I accept on the privacy policy. The code for the next page is: SSNAST-SWANKMOUSY-PRIVY-GUSTO-PIPES. The course name that you will register for is VAPBiology2014.
Right now the only thing that you will be using is the e-text. That is your online textbook. Please
log on before the end of the last week of school to ensure there are no issues.
Part 1 – Chapter Explorations – Please start each unit on a new page
The assignments in the chapters are not meant to be inclusive of all of the major topics that we
will discuss in class this year. The assignments will give you an overview of the field of biology.
Unit 1: Chemistry and Cells
1. Ch. 2 – Write the key concepts from chapter 2 (include the concept number, also). These
are listed for you in the front of the chapter.
2. Ch. 2 - Use the illustrations to describe how the structure of a water molecule allows it to
form hydrogen bonds with other molecules.
3. Ch. 3 – We are called “carbon based life forms”. What about the carbon atom makes it an
ideal atom to form the “backbone” or skeleton for most biological compounds?
4. Ch. 3 – Write about the 4 major classes of organic compounds. Tell me the atoms found,
the major purposes, and list some examples. Carbohydrates, Lipids, Proteins, Nucleic
Acids
5. Ch. 4 – Describe the similarities and differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.
Then, select 3 eukaryotic cell organelles that you think you will enjoy studying. For each
one, draw and explain the function of this organelle and tell what you find most
interesting about it.
6. Ch. 5 - Describe the differences between passive and active transport. For each of these
types of cell transport, describe several different examples.
7. Ch. 6 – What is metabolism? Describe how ATP and enzymes are related to metabolism.
8. Ch. 7 – In your own words, describe the major purpose of cellular respiration. Also, find a
website that describes a lab activity that could be used to study the rate of cellular
respiration. Select a site and an activity that is something that you understand and that
would be appropriate for high school or younger students. Briefly describe the activity
and be sure to include the website address in your answer.
9. Ch.8 – Describe the importance of photosynthesis to life on earth.
10. Ch.9 – Find and view a website that animates or illustrates the steps of a normal
eukaryotic cycle. Then, describe how cancer and the cell cycle are related. If you can find
a website that illustrates cancer formation, explore and include this, too!
Unit 2 – Genetics
1. Ch.10 – Compare and contrast sexual and asexual reproduction and list the advantages
and disadvantages of each type of reproduction. Also, describe the most significant
differences between mitosis and meiosis.
2. Ch. 11 – Look through chapter 11 (and/or any other resources related to Mendelian
genetics) and use the information to answer the following questions:
a. In Goozels(mythical creatures), wheel-shaped legs are dominant to stick- shaped
legs. Two heterozygous wheel-legged Goozels mate and have 12 little Goozels.
How many (if any) of these offspring should have stick-legs? Select appropriate
symbols and show your work.
b. What do you think will be the most interesting topic to study in this chapter?
Explain.
3. Ch. 12 – describe a chromosome. Then describe a genetic condition (such as Down
Syndrome) that can result when chromosomes don’t separate correctly during meiosis.
4. Ch. 13 –
a. What is the role of DNA in living things?
b. Describe the structure and parts of a DNA molecule.
c. Briefly, describe how DNA replicates. Use illustrations.
5. Ch.14 –
a. Describe the relationship between genes and proteins.
b. Compare and contrast the structures and functions of DNA and RNA.
6. Ch.15/17 – Compare and contrast viruses and bacteria. Describe some diseases caused by
each type of microbe. Are viruses living things? Explain your answer.
7. Ch. 16 – This chapter describes a number of research techniques that are used to study
genetics and DNA. Describe ONE of these techniques and describe what types of things
we can learn from using this technique. Find, visit, and list a website that describes or
simulates the technique that you chose.
8. Ch.17 – Describe how mammals can be cloned. Humans are mammals but, so far, no
humans have been successfully cloned. Do you think we should try to clone humans?
Defend your position.
Unit 3: Mechanisms of Evolution
1. Ch. 19 – This is the introductory chapter for the evolution unit. Look through the topics
covered in this chapter and describe the ones that you think will be most interesting to
study. Explain your choices.
2. Ch. 21 – Why are populations considered to be the smallest unit of evolution? Explain the
roles of mutation and sexual recombination in the process of evolution.
3. Ch.22–
a. Discuss the biological species concept.
b. Reproductive isolation is one of the major processes that keep species separate
from each other. Distinguish between pre-zygotic and post-zygotic barriers that
contribute to reproductive isolation and provide an example of each.
Unit 4: The Tree of Life – Introduction to Biodiversity
1. Ch. 25 – Describe how scientists think the first eukaryotic cells were formed
(endosymbiosis theory).
2. Ch. 24 – Prokaryotes can have both harmful and helpful impacts on humans. List and
describe 2 harmful and 2 helpful impacts.
3. Ch.25 – Protists are the most nutritionally diverse of all eukaryotic organisms. Describe
some of the methods by which different protists get their food (find this in the first few
pages of the chapter but look through the chapter to get an idea about the great diversity
of this group).
4. Ch. 26 – Members of the plant kingdom range from very simple to very complex
organisms. Order these groups of plants from simplest to most complex and give a brief
description of each group as well as at least one example of each group: Angiosperm,
bryophyte, gymnosperm, pterophyte.
5. Ch. 26 – Fungi are heterotrophs that feed by absorption and they are very important to
humans. Name and describe 2 types of pathogenic fungi and 2 beneficial uses of fungi.
6. Ch. 27–Describe the concept of “animal” – briefly mention nutritional mode, cell
structure and specialization, reproduction and development.
7. Ch. 27 – What is an invertebrate animal? If you had to be locked in a room with an
invertebrate, which phylum would you MOST like to be with and which phylum would
you LEAST like to be with? Justify your selections.
8. Ch. 27 –
a. You are a vertebrate animal in the class Mammalia. If you could be any other
type of non- mammalian vertebrate animal, what would you be? Explain why.
b. A number of characteristics distinguish humans from other hominids. Describe
these characteristics.
Unit 5 – Plant Form and Function
1. Ch. 28-31 – Look through these 4 chapters and find TWO concepts (identified in blue and
red by concept number – such as concept 28.1 on p. 554) that you think you will enjoy
studying. Briefly describe this concept and explain why it appeals to you. You only need
to find 2 within the 5 chapters, NOT 2 per chapter.
Unit 6 – Animal Form and Function
1. Ch. 32-39 – look through these 8 chapters (during the year, we will cover some parts of
all of these chapters but not all 8 in detail!). Select the FOUR chapters that you think you
will most enjoy studying. For each chapter, briefly describe the purposes and major
structures of the body systems featured. Also, describe what about these particular
chapters appeals to you.
Unit 7 - Ecology
1. Ch. 40-43–Ecology is the study of interactions between organisms and the environment.
These interactions are critical to keeping us alive. Look through each chapter and list the
single concept within each chapter that you think is the most important concept in the
chapter (for each chapter, write the concept and the concept number).
Part II – Big Ideas in Biology
You have just finished looking through your entire textbook. For each of the big ideas listed
below, think about what they mean, and then look through your textbook to find chapters that you
think are related to the big ideas. Under each big idea, list each chapter that you think contains
topics that exemplify that big idea. Write a specific, justification for why you think these
particular chapters should be included under that big idea. You do not need to write a justification
for each individual chapter, but summarize why you chose that group of chapters and cite a few
specific examples. You may find that a chapter goes with more than one big idea. Reading
chapter 1 will give you a good feel for some of these topics.
Big Idea 1: The diversity and unity of life can be explained by the process of evolution.
Big Idea 2: Biological systems use energy and molecular building blocks to grow, reproduce, and
maintain homeostasis (regulation).
Big Idea 3: Living systems store, retrieve, transmit, and respond to information critical to life
processes.
Big Idea 4: Biological systems interact, and these interactions possess complex properties.
Part III – Scientific Skills Exercise
Each chapter in the textbook contains with a section called Scientific Skills Exercise. Choose
any 4 chapters from the first 3 units in the book (chapters 2 – 23), preferably the ones that
you find most interesting or important (The one in chapter 12 will be on your AP Exam).
Read the first 3 sections of the exercise and complete the; interpret the data section, either on
paper or on a word file to be emailed. These are going to take some time and thought so
please don’t leave them to the last minute. If you need more information to answer the
questions make sure you either you use the text or search it out on the Internet.