Notes on AP Environmental Science
Summer Overview GSMST 2015-2016
About the course
(For Summer assignments see page 3)
This is intended as a college level
course to help you understand the
connection between people and the natural
environment. It covers lots of areas -from science to a variety of social
sciences. The emphasis will be on the
science part of environmental questions,
and as such, will cover ideas and skills
from a variety of scientific disciplines -Earth science, biology, chemistry, and
physics. In addition, science skills such as
designing and interpreting experiments
and data are important.
I see environmental science as one of
the most important courses you can take
because the material in it affects your life,
not just this year, but in future years as
well. Regardless of what career path you
choose, knowing how the Earth systems
on which you depend operate will be vital.
Environmental awareness and
understanding affect all areas of life from
what you eat, to how much money it will
cost to maintain a home, to the stability of
a job or economic opportunities. Many of
you may even choose a career path that
deals with the substantial environmental
challenges facing humans on Earth. While
you may forget much of what you learn in
some courses as soon as you take the
final, what you learn in AP Environmental
Science will be important in your life now
and for years in the future.
As a college level course, much of the
responsibility for learning material will fall
to you. While information will be
presented in class or in the textbook, you
are responsible for making the effort to
understand and to retain the material.
Early in the year, the course will offer
suggestions of other resources and study
approaches you can you use to master the
material. Regularly, almost daily effort is
expected, and frequent review will help
you deal with cumulative nature of this
material. One value of college courses is
helping you establish the skills and
mindset necessary to be a life-long
learner.
This class lacks the time to cover all
the topic areas in the depth that each
should deserve. For example, some topics
form the entirety of a semester or more
college program, and the AP course may
have time to spend three to five days on
it. To help with this, each student will be
expected to become our class expert on a
topic for each semester. The expert will
prepare additional information to present
to the class as one of your assignments. I
plan on breaking the year into to two
divisions that will coincide roughly with the
semesters. One semester, currently
planned for the fall, will look primarily at
the non-living side of Earth – planetary
processes, the atmosphere, water supply,
energy and materials supply and use. The
other semester, spring, will look at the
living side – population ecology (human
and other), ecological issues and
pressures, health related to environmental
considerations, and food supply.
As you will see, environmental topics
cannot be neatly packaged into any one
box. For example, while you may think of
food production as something that comes
from living organisms, climate, soil, and
energy availability heavily influence how
much food can be produced.
I mention this information now
because you may want to take your own
interests into consideration as you look at
your summer assignment and later decide
you expert role for each semester.
This course is an Advanced Placement
course. This means certain topics are
required by the College Board that
manages the AP program. You may find it
helpful to review the AP Environmental
Science course outline from time to time.
Use this link,
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/pub
lic/repository/ap-environmental-sciencecourse-description.pdf and pay attention
to pages 4-10. The course you are taking
will not follow this outline in numerical
sequence, but all the topics will be
covered. In addition, an AP course has an
exam. The AP Environmental Science
exam is scheduled for Monday, 2 May
2016. Much more will be said about the
exam in class throughout the year. If you
complete the work in the course with
appropriate diligence, I predict most of you
will be well prepared for the exam. Please
keep in mind that the importance of
environmental understanding goes much
beyond how you do on 100 multiple choice
questions and four free response
questions.
I look forward to meeting you and
sharing my interest in the environment
with you in the upcoming school year.
Summer assignment
Quick description
1) Read one book from one of the
following main categories of environmental
topics: Non-living Earth – resources,
geology, weather or climate, energy,
chemistry; Living Earth – environmental
health, ecology or population biology,
ecosystems management or key species
biology, food production; Politics or
economics related to the environment. For
the book, you will need to complete the
information on the book report form; see
book report form with the summer
assignment.
This is a good assignment to get
started on now so you can choose a book
of interest and get it done before summer
is over.
2) Watch HOME,(HomeProject,
YouTube)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxEN
MKaeCU
complete the question sheet (see
attached) to help you remember what was
covered. Not all the questions may be
covered in the 93 minute commonly
accessed version. You will be able to use
this note sheet for the HOME quiz first
week of school. I suggest doing this closer
to school so it will be fresh in your mind.
3) Complete review of math needed
to succeed in Environmental Science. This
is a separate file in the summer
assignment section.
Summary – related to your interests
As I mentioned above, the course
lacks the time to pursue some topics in
appropriate depth. Moreover, one of my
goals is for you develop an in-depth
knowledge of some topic that might
become a possible senior capstone
experience or something you can pursue in
college. Consequently, I am giving you
some choice in your summer work. During
the school year, you will need to read one
non-fiction environmentally related book
for each semester. I strongly encourage
you to finish the first book during the
summer, as this book will need to be read
by September 18. Should you want to
read a second book in the summer to save
you time in the spring semester, please
send me
(Thomas_Wellnitz@gwinnett.ga.us.k12)
your choice because I have a limit on how
many people can read the same book.
The second semester book will involve a
group sharing process.
If you have an area of particular
interest for which you might like to learn
more and to serve as a class expert, send
me a note, and I can send you some ideas
of what you could do in the summer if you
want to get started without the demands
of other classes.