2015 APES Summer Assignment
During the summer, you are expected to read/view the following four works:
1. READ-Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2008)
2. READ- Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn (New York: Bantam Books,
1995)
3. READ- Diversity of Life by Edward O. Wilson (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1999)
4. WATCH- An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do
About It by Al Gore (New York: Rodale, 2006)
While reading/ viewing these works, please type the answer to the following prompts1. Hot, Flat, and Crowded- Why was Hot, Flat, and Crowded a required reading for Environmental Science?
Support your answer.
2. An Inconvenient Truth- Is The Inconvenient Truth a political message using a science forum or
a science message delivered by a politician?
3. Diversity of Life- After reading The Diversity of Life, what are the three most important ideas to remember
for use in this year’s class? Support your answer.
4. In Ishmael, what are the differences between the “givers” and “takers” and how does this pertain to our
current global situation?
When you receive your class schedule (~August 20 th), please visit your AP Environmental Science Teacher’s
webpage (located on the NSD HS website) and submit your email address on the google survey. You will then be
emailed a link to that teacher’s class wiki. For each of the summer works, there will be a discussion post.
Your assignment will be to1. Paste your response to the correct discussion post
2. Reflect on other responses under each discussion post.
*Use the rubric below to determine whether you met the assignment criteria.
For each work-
Objective
Exceeds course
expectations
Meets course
expectations
Approaches
course
Expectations
1. To support reflections
on content(Taking into
consideration responses to
all four discussion
questions) (Max. Point-60
points)
Reflects on content
through a posting that
clearly references
respective summer
reading assignment
while bringing in
additional resources and
asking additional
questions. (15 Points)
Reflects on content
through a posting
that accurately
references
respective summer
reading assignment
(14 Points)
Reflects on
No Post (0 Points)
summer reading
assignments.
However, response
does not provide
evidence that
accurately
references
respective
summer reading
assignment. (10
Points)
2. To engage in the online
Substantive and timely
learning community
responses to posted
and extends the online
messages and
conversation (Taking into
responses from other
consideration how you reflect learners supported by
on other learner’s responses references from summer
in all four discussions.)(Max. readings. (10 Points)
Point-40 points)
Responds in a
responds to a
substantive manner posted message
to a posted message and/or response
and/or response
from another
from another learner learner (5 Points)
supported by
references from
summer readings. (9
Points)
Does not meet
courseExpectations
No response (0
Points)
Objective One-For each work, a maximum of fifteen points will be awarded for each post (60 points total.)
Ex. Bob Ballard references summer readings in discussions one and two along with explaining personal
research pertaining to the two discussions. He would receive fifteen points for each. However, he responds
to the third discussion without referencing the reading and receives only ten points. He does not post a
response to the fourth discussion and receives zero points. Bob’s total score for objective one is 40 points
out of the total 60.
Objective Two-For each work, a maximum of 10 points will be awarded for each post (40 points total.)
Ex. Rachel Carson responds to Bob Ballard’s Discussion one and two Posts, referencing the specifics from
her summer readings. She would receive 9 points each. She does not respond to anyone’s third discussion
posts and receives zero points. For the final discussion post, Rachel not only responds to Bob with
appropriate references, she also responds to Aldo with an appropriate reference. She would receive 10 points
for that thread. Her total for this objective would be 28 points.