AP Biology Summer Assignment
Mrs. Burroughs
Easley High School/2015-2016
Welcome to Advanced Placement Biology! I am excited to see that you’ve made the commitment to study Biology at a
high level and at an accelerated pace. I’m looking forward to a great year with you and hope that your experience in this
course will be both challenging and rewarding.
AP Biology is a course designed to be the equivalent of a two-semester, introductory biology course taken during a
college student’s freshman year. This course will require dedication, self-motivation, and both independent and
collaborative work this summer and throughout the school year. The summer assignment that follows is crucial and
must be completed by the first day of the 2015-2016 school year. This assignment will NOT be accepted late. If you do
not have this assignment on the first day of class, expect to be asked to drop the class. It is a major test grade for Q1, so
be sure to have it ready to turn in at the beginning of the first day of class. Please follow the directions carefully so that
you will receive full credit for this assignment. Failure to follow direction below will result in a deduction of points from
your final grade on this assignment.
Summer Assignment:
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You will need to pick up your textbook from EHS in June. Come to the EHS campus during the summer hours
posted on the website. The school is not open on Fridays. We are using: Starr, Cecie and Taggart, Ralph, 2006 “
Biology: The Unity and Diversity of Life”, 11th edition, Thomson Brooks/Cole: California.
Read chapters 1-3. These chapters focus on an introduction to biology, life’s chemical basis and the molecules
of life. Once you have read the chapters, complete the following assignment.
There is a copy of this assignment on the EHS website. Please copy it, save it, and insert your answers into the
document. Print your completed work and turn in on the first day of class.
Chapter 1: Invitation to Biology
1. List and describe the levels of organization in nature. Begin with the atom and end with the
biosphere.
2. Classification of life on Earth is based on three domains. Name and describe the three
domains of life.
3. After reading section 1.4, explain how evolution has lead to the diversity of life on our planet.
4. Scientific inquiry:
a. Describe the difference in inductive and deductive reasoning.
b. Describe the difference in qualitative and quantitative data.
c. Why are hypotheses only used in deductive reasoning?
d. Review the following words: hypothesis, data, controlled experiment, control, independent
variable and dependent variable. Read the attached article from Campbell and Reece on a
field experiment concerning mimicry in snakes and identify the following from the experiment:
Question
Hypothesis
Control group
Experimental group
Independent variable
Dependent variable
Summary of Data/Conclusion
A Case Study in Scientific Inquiry:
Investigating Mimicry in Snake Populations
The story begins with a set of observations and generalizations from discovery science. Many poisonous animals are
brightly colored, often with distinctive patterns that stand out against the background. This is called “warning
coloration” because it apparently signals "dangerous species" to potential predators. But there are also mimics. These
imposters look like poisonous species, but are actually relatively harmless. An example is the flower fly, a non-stinging
insect that mimics the appearance of a stinging honeybee.
The geographic distribution of the Carolina snakes made it possible to test the key prediction of the mimicry hypothesis.
Mimicry should help protect king snakes from predators, but only in regions where coral snakes also live. The mimicry
hypothesis predicts that predators in non-coral snake areas will attack king snakes more frequently than will predators
that live where coral snakes are present.
What is the function of such mimicry? What advantage does it confer on the mimics? In 1862, British scientist Henry
Bates proposed the reasonable hypothesis that mimics such as flower flies benefit when predators confuse them with
the harmful species. In other words, the deception may be an evolutionary adaptation that evolved by reducing the
mimic’s risk of being eaten. As intuitive as this hypothesis may be, it has been relatively difficult to test, especially with
field experiments. But in 2001, biologists David and Karin Pfennig, along with William Harcombe, an undergraduate at
the University of North Carolina, designed a simple but elegant set of field experiments to test Bates’ mimicry
hypothesis. The team investigated a case of mimicry among snakes that live in North and South Carolina. A poisonous
snake called the eastern coral snake has warning coloration: bold, alternating rings of red, yellow, and black. Predators
rarely attack these snakes. It is unlikely that predators learn this avoidance behavior, as a first strike by a coral snake is
usually deadly.
Natural selection may have increased the frequency of predators that have inherited an instinctive recognition and
avoidance of the warning coloration of the coral snake. A nonpoisonous snake named the scarlet king snake mimics the
ringed coloration of the coral snake. Both king snakes and coral snakes live in the Carolinas, but the king snake’s
geographic range extends farther north and west into regions where no coral snakes are found.
The geographic distribution of the Carolina snakes made it possible to test the key prediction of the mimicry hypothesis.
Mimicry should help protect king snakes from predators, but only in regions where coral snakes also live. The mimicry
hypothesis predicts that predators in non-coral snake areas will attack king snakes more frequently than will predators
that live where coral snakes are present.
Field Experiments with Artificial Snakes
To test the mimicry hypothesis, Harcombe made hundreds of artificial snakes out of wire covered with a claylike
substance called plasticine. He fashioned two versions of fake snakes: an experimental group with the red, black, and
yellow ring pattern of king snakes; and a control group of plain brown artificial snakes as a basis of comparison.
The researchers placed equal numbers of the two types of artificial snakes in Held sites throughout North and South
Carolina, including the region where coral snakes are absent. After four weeks, the scientists retrieved the fake snakes
and recorded how many had been attacked by looking for bite or claw marks. The most common predators were foxes,
coyotes, and raccoons, but black bears also attacked some of the artificial snakes. The data fit the key prediction of the
mimicry hypothesis. Compared to the brown artificial snakes, the ringed snakes were attacked by predators less
frequently only in field sites within the geographic range of the poisonous coral snakes.
Designing Controlled Experiments
The snake mimicry experiment provides an example of how scientists design experiments to test the effect of one
variable by canceling out the effects of any unwanted variables, such as the number of predators in this case. The design
is called a controlled experiment, where an experimental group (the artificial king snakes, in this case) is compared with
a control group (the brown artificial snakes). Ideally, the experimental and control groups differ only in the one factor
the experiment is designed to test—in our example, the effect of the snakes' coloration on the behavior of predators.
What if the researchers had failed to control their experiment?
Without the brown mock snakes as a control group, the number of attacks on the fake king snakes in different
geographic regions would tell us nothing about the effect of snake coloration on predator behavior at the
different field sites. Perhaps, for example, fewer predators attacked the artificial king snakes in the eastern and southern
field sites simply because fewer predators live there. Or maybe warmer temperatures in those regions make predators
less hungry. The brown artificial snakes enabled the scientists to rule out such variables as predator density and
temperature because those factors would have had equal effects on the control group and experimental group. Yet
predators in the eastern and southern field sites attacked more brown artificial snakes than "king snakes." The clever
experimental design left coloration as the only factor that could account for the low predation rate on the artificial king
snakes placed within the range of coral snakes. It was not the absolute number of attacks on the artificial king snakes
that counted, but the difference between that number and the number of attacks on the brown snakes.
A common misconception is that the term controlled experiment means that scientists control the experimental
environment to keep everything constant except the one variable being tested. But that's impossible in field research
and not realistic even in highly regulated laboratory environments. Researchers usually "control" unwanted variables
not by eliminating them through environmental regulation, but by ramming their effects by using control groups.
David Pfennig and his colleagues made artificial snakes to test a prediction of the mimicry hypothesis: that king snakes
benefit from mimicking the warning coloration of coral snakes only in regions where poisonous coral snakes are present.
In field sites where coral snakes were present, predators attacked far fewer artificial king snakes than brown artificial
snakes. The warning coloration of the "king snakes" afforded no such protection where coral snakes were absent. In
fact, at those field sites, the artificial king snakes were more likely to be attacked than the brown artificial snakes,
perhaps because the bright pattern is particularly easy to spot against the background.
The field experiments support the mimicry hypothesis by not falsifying the key prediction that imitation of coral snakes
is only effective where coral snakes are present. The experiments also tested an alternative hypothesis that predators
generally avoid all snakes with brightly colored rings, whether or not poisonous snakes with that coloration live in the
environment. That alternative hypothesis was falsified by the data showing that the ringed coloration failed to repel
predators where coral snakes were absent.
Campbell, Neil A. Biology, 6th ed. Redwood City, CA: Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc., 2004.
Chapter 2: Life’s Chemical Basis
1. Create a mind/concept map using the following terms. You may draw this or type this on a separate sheet of
paper. Use these resources to help you.
http://www.studygs.net/mapping/ and http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_01.htm
anion
atom
cation
chemical equilibrium
compound
covalent bond(polar & nonpolar)
electron
2.
3.
4.
5.
electronegativity
element
energy level
hydrogen bond
ion
ionic bond
isotope
matter
molecule
neutron
potential energy
product
radioisotope
reactant
structural formula
valence electron
Summarize the important concepts of acids and bases.
What are salts, and why are they important to cells?
What are buffer systems, and what role do they play in the human body?
Draw 4 water molecules. Label their charges and show how they would connect through hydrogen
bonding.
6. Fill out the following chart with information regarding water’s emergent properties:
Emergent Property
Description- Why does this
property occur?
Example and Importance to Living
Organisms
Cohesive Properties
 Cohesion
 Adhesion
 Surface Tension
Modification of Temperature
 High specific heat
 Evaporative cooling
 Ice as an insulator
Universal solvent
Polarity
Chapter 3: Molecules of Life
1. What is an organic compound?
2. What are functional groups? Name the 7 common functional groups described in your book and
show their structure. Give examples of where these groups may be found.
3. Answer question #1 on p. 49 of your textbook in the critical thinking portion of the chapter review.
4. Describe the relationship between these words: monomer, polymer, condensation, and hydrolysis.
5. What is a macromolecule?
6. What are the building blocks of carbohydrates?
7. Compare the structure and functions of glycogen, starch, and cellulose. Why do they have different
properties?
8. What are the building blocks of lipids?
9. Why are saturated and unsaturated fatty acids different at room temperature?
10. Describe the phospholipids of the cell membrane, and explain why they align themselves the
way they do in the membrane.
11. Explain the structure of sterols and identify three sterols important in the cell.
12. Describe the formation of a protein from primary through quaternary structure.
13. What are the building blocks of proteins?
14. What is meant by the phrase, a protein’s structure dictates its function?
15. What happens when a protein becomes denatured?
16. Name 4 different groups of proteins and describe their functions.
17. Describe the structure of DNA using the terms double helix, complementary, antiparallel (3’ and 5’).
18. What are the building blocks of nucleic acids?
19. What are four structural differences between DNA and RNA?
We will be reading Survival of the Sickest: The Surprising Connections between Disease and Longevity by Sharon
Moalem and Jonathan Price (Harper Collins, 2008) this year. You need to purchase a copy of this book over the
summer. Poor Richard’s Bookstore in Easley has some on hand and students receive a discount.
If you have any questions about this assignment, contact me through my school email. I’ll see you in August. I’ll be in
room 144. I am looking forward to sharing this adventure with you. I LOVE Biology, and hope you do, too. Enjoy your
summer.
Mrs. Burroughs