AP Biology Summer Assignment 2014-2015
Instructor: K. Boose
Hello AP Bio Students!
Welcome to AP Biology. I look forward to meeting you or seeing you again in August. Until
then, I have a few things for you to do to prepare you for the fall. AP Biology is a college
course (not college prep) with college level expectations for behavior attendance, participation
and effort. This course is designed to help you develop a conceptual framework of modern
biology, to gain a deeper appreciation of science as a process and to prepare you for the AP
Biology Exam.
The AP Biology Exam is approximately three hours long and has two parts – multiple choice
and free response. Each section is worth 50% of the final exam grade. Your exam score will be
rated as a 1 (poor) to 5 (best). A score of 5 is equivalent to an average score among college
students earning an A in a Biology college level course. A score of 4 on the AP Bio Exam would
be equivalent to an A-, B+ and B. We will not think of getting a grade lower than this!
The AP Biology course and exam are organized around 4 underlying principles which are
called the “Big Ideas”. You are responsible for knowing these Big Ideas and how they relate.
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Big Idea 1 – The process of evolution drives diversity and the unity of life.
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Big Idea 2 – Biological systems use free energy and molecular building blocks to grow,
to reproduce and to maintain dynamic homeostasis.
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Big Idea 3 – Living systems store, retrieve, transmit and respond to information
essential to life processes.
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Big Idea 4 – Biological systems interact and these systems and their interactions
possess complex properties.
A practice is a way to coordinate knowledge and skills in order to accomplish a goal or task.
These science practices enable students to establish lines of evidence and use them to develop
a refine testable explanations and predictions of natural phenomena. These science practices
capture important aspects of the work that scientists engage in, at the level of competence
expected of AP Biology students.
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Science Practice 1: The student can use representations and models to communicate
scientific phenomena and solve scientific problems.
Science Practice 2: The student can use mathematics appropriately.
Science Practice 3: The student can engage in scientific questioning to extend thinking
or guide investigations within the context of the AP course.
Science Practice 4: The student can plan and implement data collection strategies
appropriate to a particular scientific question.
Science Practice 5: The student can perform data analysis and evaluation of evidence.
Science Practice 6: The student can work with scientific explanations and theories.
Science Practice 7: The student is able to connect and relate knowledge across
various scales, concepts, and representations in and across domains.
Assignment #1 – Introduction E-mail
Your first AP Bio summer assignment is to be sure you have a clear, easy to understand
professional e-mail address. If you don’t have one, create a gmail account. Be sure to use your
initials and last name, not your nickname. Once you’ve done that, please send me an email at
kgboose@bcps.k12.md.us or kmgz@mac.com including the following information:
Subject Line: AP Biology Your Last Name First Initial
Body: Your Full name and…
 Who are you? How would you define yourself?
 What do you like to do in your spare time?
 What did you like or dislike about your Biology Honors 1 class?
 What are you looking forward to most in AP Biology?
 What are you most anxious about in AP Biology?
 Why are you taking AP Biology? What do you hope to accomplish/gain?
 What are you long term academic/career goals?
Assignment #2 – Summer Reading
Over the summer I would like for you to purchase or borrow from the library the book
entitled:
How We Live & Why We Die: The Secret Lives of Cells
Author: Lewis Wolpert (I ordered it from Barnes & Noble, I saw it on Amazon.com new or used.
Everything about our existence – movement, imagination, and reproduction, birth and ultimately
death – is governed by our cells. Cells are the basis of life in the universe, from the tiniest
bacterial cell to the most complex of animals. Embryologist, Lewis Wolpert demonstrates how
human life derives from a single cell and then grows into a body. He examines the science
behind topics that are much discussed but rarely understood like stem cell research, cloning
and mutating cancer cells and explains how all life evolved from one cell. This will be a great
book to tie in all of our Big Ideas!
As you are reading the book, I would like for you to keep a reflection journal (a
composition notebook, or small binder). During your reflections, for each chapter
address at least 3 of the following prompts.
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What new words, ideas, questions, or insights do you have?
What did you visualize as your read? What were you reminded of?
What concept can you connect this to from previous learning in your science
classes?
How has your thinking changed after reading this?
What do you think of this author and his style of writing?
How does this connect with one of our Big Ideas?
Assignment #3
I will begin the course in the fall under the assumption that you are familiar with the
following basic chemistry concepts. Please complete the following as a review of your
previous science classes.
1. Contrast the term element with the term compound.
2. Fill in the following table:
Element
a. Carbon
b. Hydrogen
c. Oxygen
d. Nitrogen
e. Phosphorus
f. Sulfur
Symbol
Atomic Number
Electron Shell
Diagram
3. Contrast the terms atomic mass and atomic number.
4. What is an isotope and what is so special about radioactive isotopes?
5. What determines interactions between atoms? Why are valence electrons important?
6. Define the following terms:
a. Chemical bond
b. Covalent bond
c. Single bond
d. Double bond
e. Electronegativity
f.
Nonpolar covalent bond
g. Polar covalent bond
7. What is the difference between a structural and molecular formula?
8. Express both the structural and molecular formula of the following compounds.
a. Oxygen gas
b. Carbon dioxide
c. Glucose
d. Phosphate
e. Ammonia
f.
Water
9. How do ionic bonds compare to covalent bonds?
10. Compare and contrast hydrogen bonds and van der Waals interactions.
11. Define a dynamic equilibrium in terms of quantities of reactants and products.
12. Why is water considered a polar molecule?
13. Define the following terms:
a. Solute
b. Solvent
c. Aqueous solution
d. Hydrophilic
e. Hydrophobic
f.
Molarity
14. What defines an acid and a base?
15. Why are small changes in pH so important in biology?
16. What is a buffer? Give an example of how a buffer works in a human.
17. What is special about carbon that makes it the central atom in the chemistry of life?
18. Be familiar with the following functional groups. Write the chemical formula and the
functional property of each
a. Carbonyl
b. Carboxyl
c. Hydroxyl
d. Amino
e. Sulfhydryl
f.
Phosphate