AP/IB Summer Assignment 2011/2012 School Year
Welcome to AP/IB Biology. Our goal this year is to prepare you for successful completion of the AP
course exam in May of 2012. We will also have the aim to develop ourselves as inquiring,
knowledgeable, and caring people who will help to create a better and more peaceful world through
intercultural understanding and respect.
This year is going to be challenging because of the overwhelming amount of information you are
expected to master in the limited time we have to do it. I will assist you in this challenge but for you to
have any chance of success you must rely on yourself to acquire the majority of the information. You will
be expected to read, outline, and assimilate the knowledge in each section of the book as we progress
through the course in the following 11 months.
Science can seem like an accumulation of innumerable facts, so as a student of science, it is important
that you pay attention for themes that run through this course of study. The IB program recognizes four
themes and they are:
Structure and function
This relationship is probably one of the most important in a study of biology and operates at all levels of
complexity. Students should appreciate that structure permits some function while, at the same time,
limiting others.
Universality versus diversity
At the factual level, it soon becomes obvious to students that some molecules (for example, enzymes,
amino acids, nucleic acids, and ATP) are ubiquitous, and so are processes and structures. However,
these universal features exist in a biological world of enormous diversity; Species exist in a range of
habitats and show adaptations that relate structure to function. At another level, students can grasp the
idea of a living world in which universality means that a diverse range of organisms (including ourselves)
are connected and interdependent.
Equilibrium within systems
Checks and balances exist both exist both within living organisms and within ecosystems. The state of
dynamic equilibrium is essential for the continuity of life.
Evolution
The concept of evolution draws together the other themes. It can be regarded as a change leading to
diversity within constraints, and this leads to adaptations of structure and function.
The AP program is based on 8 major themes, which I will not list here because they are basically covered
in the four IB themes listed above.
Summer Assignment
This will be one of the most challenging and time consuming courses that you will take in either high
school or college. The AP curriculum is both broad and deep. You will be required to understand the
great diversity of life at a very detailed level. The primary text will be Biology by Sylvia S. Mader. Due to
the breadth of the AP curriculum we will be required to cover every single chapter in the textbook. You
will be required to read and outline every chapter in the textbook prior to lecture. You will receive
points for your outlines of the text but then you will also need to prove your understanding by
performing adequately well on a pretest for each section of the book. The majority of your grade will be
determined by how well you perform on quizzes, tests, and exams.
1. Purchase a large, solidly constructed, notebook with permanently bound paper for taking notes.
You may either create a margin big enough to annotate in during class lecture or you may
purchase a notebook that is designed for the Cornell note taking method.
2. Read and outline chapters 46-49 and 50-1 in Biology by Sylvia S. Mader. It is important that you
do not try to complete this assignment in just a few days, but instead, pace yourself to complete
this assignment over a period of several weeks. I would recommend doing the “Testing Yourself”
multiple choice questions at the back of each chapter. Answers to these questions can be found
in Appendix A beginning on page 946. You may also register for on-line help with this text as
well. Go to www.mhhe.com/maderbiology9 for text outlines, PowerPoints, animations,
flashcards, and quizzes.
3. Be prepared for a 50 minute multiple choice test on the material from chapters 46 through 50-1.
This test will be about a week into the new school year after we have quickly reviewed the
material in class. I have chosen the “Ecology” unit as our summer assignment because I feel that
the information in these chapters is the easiest for students to understand when covered at a
rapid pace. Do not mistake my decision to have you learn this information independently as
meaning that ecology is any less important than any of the other units; In fact, you can count on
both “Animal Behavior” (Chapter 45… Which will be our first lab) and “Ecology” questions to
present themselves on the AP test in May!
4. Purchase and read “Your Inner Fish” by Neil Shubin. We will begin reading this book in June and
continue to read it throughout the summer. There are eleven chapters in the book so I would
like you to focus on reading one chapter a week. You may purchase this book from your local
bookstore or there are used versions on-line at such vendors as Amazon.com.
5. Participate as an author on http://mrtisorsinnerfish.blogspot.com. I will be sending you an
invitation via e-mail to participate in this blog as we read the book together. Please make your
blogspot user name your first name_last name (Ex: Charles_Darwin) so that I can easily identify
you. You may both post to the blog or comment on others posts. This is a class assignment so I
expect to see your chapter posts and comments weekly beginning with your first post on
chapter 1 no later than June 30th. E-mail me at tisor_t@auhsd.k12.ca.us if you have any trouble
getting signed up after I have sent you the invitation.