Hayfield Secondary AP Summer Assignment Cover Sheet
Course
Teacher Names & Email Addresses
Assignment Title
Date Assigned
Date Due
Objective/Purpose of Assignment
Description of how Assignment will
be Assessed
Grade Value of Assignment
Tools/Resources Needed to
Complete Assignment
Estimated Time Needed to Complete
Assignment
AP Biology
Cirino – lauren.cirino@fcps.edu
Summer Assignment
Summer 2013
Please see the grid in your packet
To review biology
This assignment will be graded per chapter on the
analysis that you’ve written based on each picture and
each statement. It will be worth 50 points that goes
toward 15% of your class grade for the first quarter.
Please see the grid in your packet
Your Inner Fish – you can buy one or borrow a copy
from the public library
10 hours
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AP Biology Summer Assignment
Ms. L. Cirino
2011
Introduction:
Welcome to AP biology! My class is highly intensive, with a lot of material that needs to
be covered in a very short amount of time. This means we will occasionally have to get
together after school as a group. Please be aware that part of taking this class is
commitment to being on time, on task, and hard working. Although AP Biology is a huge
commitment, we will have a lot of fun. I look forward to working with each one of you next
year! Here are a few items of interest before you get started on the summer assignment.
I know the words “summer assignment” tends to send chills down any high school
student’s spine, but I think that you will find that this assignment will be very beneficial to you
as we start the school year in the fall and even a little fun! The reasons I am giving you a
summer assignment are:
 To keep your mind sharp and thinking, so you are ready to hit the ground running in
September
Task #
1
Purchase
Due Date
Second day of
class
First day of
class
Summer Assignment Overview
Task Description
Objective
Your Inner Fish
Begin to see the connections between the
major themes in biology.
5-subject
This will be where you keep your class notes
notebook
and activities
My email address is lacirino@fcps.edu. If you have any questions about the summer
assignment you can get in touch with me through email. I may send emails out about this
class over the summer. Please fill out the last page of this packet and submit it to me before
the last day of school.
Your Inner Fish
Evolution is one of the major themes in any general biology course. In Your Inner Fish,
Neil Shubin writes about the evolutionary relationship between fish and tetrapods (you are a
tetrapod) by discussing development of major body systems. This is not a dry biology
textbook. Everything is presented through exciting new scientific research and discoveries.
In addition to seeing many connections to biology, you will find great applications to
anatomy and physiology.
With this in mind, I am asking you to read Your Inner Fish over the summer. As you read
the book, please keep a reading journal. This must be hand written and within a marbled
journal. My suggestion is as you complete a chapter, journal about it instead of reading the
entire book, then going back and trying to write about each chapter. For each chapter:
1. Explain the connection between each picture below and the
relevant chapter. Your discussion for each chapter can include
information from other sources.
2. Consider the “disputable statement” for each chapter (follows
pictures) and respond to it based on what you have read in the
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book and know about evolution. Again, you can use additional sources but make
sure to use citations.
(This assignment
is based on work
presented by
Jen Orwar, Julie
Pavlini and Pam
Phelps.)
There is no picture for chapter 6. Just
complete the disputable statement.
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Disputable Statements
Definition of dispute - A disagreement, argument, or debate (keep this in mind when you are
discussing each statement)
Chapter 1 Finding Your Inner Fish
Dispute: Most living organisms fossilize after death, so fossils in exemplary condition are easily
found all over the world.
Chapter 2 Getting a Grip
Dispute: Humans and fish are nothing alike: we have hands with fingers, they have fins.
Chapter 3 Handy Genes
Dispute: Each cell in a human body contains a unique set of DNA. This allows some cells to
build muscle or skin and some cells to become arms versus fingers.
Chapter 4 Teeth Everywhere
Dispute: Teeth evolved through time, after bones, as they became a beneficial adaptation
for protection against predation.
Chapter 5 Getting Ahead
Dispute: Humans and sharks both have four gill arches as embryos, but the germ layers and
arches develop into unrelated structures in each organism.
Chapter 6 The Best-Laid (Body) Plans
Dispute: Scientists work in isolation: it is counter-productive to repeat another scientist’s
experiments or to consider research that is not directly related to the organism you are
studying.
Chapter 7 Adventures in Bodybuilding
Dispute: All tissues in the human body are made of similar cells that connect to each other
in similar fashion.
Chapter 8 Making Scents
Dispute: There are few genes dedicated to olfactory sense and they are similar in all
organisms capable of detecting smell.
Chapter 9 Vision
Dispute: All organisms with vision have similar eyes and similar vision genes.
Chapter 10 Ears
Dispute: In humans, eyes and ears function independently of one another; sensation in one
does not affect sensation in the other.
Chapter 11 The Meaning of It All
Dispute: Maladies of the human body are not related to our evolutionary past.
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Name: ________________________________________________
Grade: _______
Email: ________________________________________________
*if you don’t get this summer assignment on June 4th, please email me this information
lauren.cirino@fcps.edu.
1. Why did you sign up to take AP Biology?
2. What are your personal strengths when it comes to learning new material?
3. What causes you to struggle in a course?
4. What is the most effective way for you to prepare for a test?
5. Do you plan on taking the AP exam?
6. How many AP classes are you taking (please list)?
7. Have you or will you be taking anatomy and physiology?
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