Welcome to Ms. Churchill’s “Summer of Biology 2009An evolving creation!
Dun….dun…dun…dun…dun…Is it safe to go back in the water? NO! Like a shark, there lurks the AP Biology Summer Assignment!
This summer you will delve into the world of biology like you never thought you would in those hot months! We will explore many topics to whet your appetite for the coming year of hard work. This summer assignment has been designed for five purposes:
• to get you to think during those summer months to keep your mind sharp, because I will expect a lot out of it come September!
• to expand your vocabulary by familiarizing you with terms that we will be using in class.
• to begin to introduce you to major concepts from AP Biology
• to have you earn three strong grades to help you begin the first quarter with confidence.
• to decrease the amount of new material that you will have to learn during the school year.
# Due Date Assigned Task
1
June 20th a. Email me and answer six questions about yourself at marymfagan@hotmail.com
2
July 1st b. Purchase
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, start reading first few chapters
c. Purchase
Biology: The Unity & Diversity of Life 11th edition by Starr and Taggart & begin chapter questions
3
July 31st 1. After reading the first three chapters (40 pages) respond to the text on our class biology page.
http://www.marysbiologypage.blogspot.com/
d. What do you think of Dr. Paul Farmer
e. How does Dr. Farmer embody Margaret Mead’s quote, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”
4
August 24th 1. Chapter 45 – 49 Questions due first day of class. Bring shoe box with index cards and written responses.
AP BiologyPlease email me at marymfagan@hotmail.com before the beginning of July and tell me the following:
1. Why you are taking AP Biology?
2. What other AP classes you are taking?
3. What activities and sports you are involved in.
4. What are your strengths as a student?
5. What do you need to work on as a student?
6. One fun fact about you.
Mountains Beyond MountainsBe sure to read the following on Summer Reading BEFORE you work on this summer reading assignment.
1. READ
Read the excerpt from the book, Mountains Beyond Mountains.
2. THINK
Now, this is most definitely a true story. This excerpt is the first three chapters (~40 pages) of a 300-page book written about Harvard physician, Dr. Paul Farmer. Think about the life this man is choosing to live as compared to the reasons you hear that most people become doctors. Also think about how this story shows how, in the real world, science and medicine can be strongly influenced by politics.
If you want to meet Paul Farmer, you can watch a talk he gave recently (May 8, 2007) at NYU by clicking on this link. You can also visit the Partners for Health Web site www.pih.org
3. RESPOND
Respond to the following on my biology blog:
http://www.marysbiologypage.blogspot.com/
a. Tell me what you thought about the excerpt from this book. Tell me what you think of Dr. Paul Farmer.
b. Margaret Mead (a very famous anthropologist) once said:
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Explain how Paul Farmer embodies this idea.
Read Chapters 45-49 and answer the following questions on a separate piece of paper or index card if the question calls for it. These are due the first day of class. You will be assessed on this material the second week of class.
Some of the answers are to be done on paper and some on index cards. Organize your index cards by chapter and put an elastic band around each chapters questions. Use a shoe box to hold your index cards. We will be making index cards all year and adding them to your collection as we will be using these to study for the AP exam.
Chapter 45 Questions – pages 800-8171. What happened to the reindeer population on St. Matthew’s island between 1957 and 1980?
2. What is ecology? – index card
3. Define the following on index cards:
a. Population size
b. Age structure
c. Population density
d. Population distribution – draw pictures of the three distribution patterns: clumped, nearly uniform, and random
4. Describe the two methods of quantifying the number of species in an area: quadrats and capture recapture methods.
5. Name two ways a population can increase and two ways a population can decrease in size.
6. Define on an index card:
a. Zero population growth
b. G=rN (what does this mean)
c. Exponential growth – include a diagram and explanation
d. Biotic potential
7. What is a limiting factor and give an example of a limiting factor on a population.
8. Define on an index card:
a. carrying capacity
b. Draw an explain a graph showing the S shaped curve (Figure 45.8)
9. Give an example of a density dependent control on a population.
10. Give an example of a density independent control on a population.
11. Define on an index card:
a. Survivorship curve
b. Show the three types of curves on an index card and give an example of each curve. Type I, Type II, and Type III
12. Explain the experimental work and significance of Reznick and Endler’s study on
guppies in Trinidad.
13.What was the average rate of increase for the global human population in 2004?
14. On an index card answer the following:
a. Give four explanations to explain the extraordinary rate of human population.
15. What is TFR? What is that number currently per female?
16. Which country has the most far reaching family planning program? What is it?
17. On an index card describe each of the following stages of economic development:
a. Preindustrial stage
b. Transitional stage
c. Industrial stage
d. Postindustrial stage
18. How much of the world’s goods and services does the US use? What % of the world’s population does the US represent?
Chapter 46 Questions1. Define the following ecological terms on an index card: habitat, niche, community, symbiotic, competition, predation, parasitism, and mutualism.
2. What five factors shape a community on an index card?
3. Compare and contrast facultative and obligatory mutualism on an index card.
4. Compare and contrast interspecific and intraspecific competition on an index card.
5. Explain the theory of competitive exclusion on an index card.
6. Explain the Type I, Type II, and Type III models of Predator/Prey interactions on an index card.
7. Explain the relationship between the Canadian lynx and snowshoe hare.
8. Discuss four types of prey defenses on an index card.
9. What are parasites and parasitoids on an index card?
10. Discuss five attributes that make parasites and parasitoids good controls.
11. Explain the relationship between the cowbirds and the buffalo.
12. Explain the following terms: ecological succession, pioneer species, primary and secondary succession on an index card.
13. What are key stone species on an index card?
14. Name three ways geographic dispersal of species can occur on an index card.
15. What has been the result of the following exotic species?
a. alga Caulerpa
b. Kudzu
c. Rabbits in Autralia
16. What happens to the number of species as you move from the Arctic to temperate to tropical zones?
17. Name three reasons biodiversity is favored in the tropics on an index card.
18. Compare and contrast distance and area affect of islands on an index card.
Chapter 47 Notebook Questions1. As Louisiana loses its wetlands what type of effect will this have on local wildlife?
2. Name three effects warmer temperatures will have on Louisiana.
3. Define the following on index cards:
a. Primary producers
b. Consumers: (herbivores, carnivores, parasites, omnivores)
c. Detritrivores
d. Decomposers
e. Ecosystem
4. Describe the three levels of a trophic level.
5. Describe and give an example of a food chain.
6. How many energy transfers can energy that producers initially capture pass through?
7. Is all energy conserved as it is passed from one transfer to the next?
8. Where are food webs short and where are food webs long?
9. Compare a complex food web to a simple food web.
10. Compare a grazing food web and a detrital food web.
11. How does energy leave an ecosystem?
12. What was DDT used for?
13. Where does DDT accumulate in organisms and what is the result?
14. What is primary productivity? Index card
15. What is gross primary productivity? Index card
16. What is net ecosystem production? Index card
17. Name four factors that impact net production.
18. Compare a biomass pyramid and an energy pyramid.
19. What percent of energy entering one level of an energy pyramid is available to the next level?
20. What are the three categories of bigeochemical cyles?
21. Index card: Draw a picture of a hydrologic cycle.
22. Index card: Draw a picture of the carbon cycle.
23. Index card: Describe the Greenhouse effect.
24. Index card: Draw a picture of the nitrogen cycle.
25. Describe nitrogen fixation, ammonification, nitrification, and denitrification.
26. Name three ways human activities disrupt the nitrogen cycle.
27. What is the most limiting factor in all natural ecosystems?
28. Where is most phosphorous locked up?
Chapter 48 Notebook Questions1. What happened to the sea lion population in the Galapagos Islands in 1997-1998? Why did this happen?
2. What happened that winter in the Southwestern Pacific waters?
3. What is climate?
4. How does the movement of air result in deserts?
5. What is seasonal variation a result of?
6. Explain the following types of renewable energy:
a. solar hydrogen energy b. Wind energy
7. Where is ozone located and what does it do?
8. What is the major cause of loss of ozone layer?
9. What can thermal inversion do?
10. What is the difference between industrial smog and photochemical smog?
11. How much of the earth’s surface do ocean waters cover?
12. Why do currents form?
13. What is the rain shadow effect?
14. Where do monsoon rains occur?
15. What is biogeography?
16. What are biomes?
17. What are hot spots and ecoregions?
18. What is soil?
19. Index card: describe the weather process of rocks – rock to clay.
Chapter 49
1. Which bees respond faster – Afrianized bees or European bees?
2. What is the function of isopentyl acetate in bees?
3. Read the example of feeding preferences of garter snakes in CA: compare newborn offspring of coastal parents and offspring of inland parents. How did the offspring “hybrid” snakes respond?
4. What are hormones?
5. What happens if oxytocin is injected into a female?
6. What happens if a female is given an oxytocin blocking drug?
7. What is instinctive behavior?
8. How do newly hatched cuckoos respond to eggs in the nest?
9. Name three traits that are instinctive in garter snakes.
10. What do human infants mimic?
11. What is a learned behavior?
12. What is imprinting?
13. How do white crowned sparrows learn the specific dialect of their songs? What is the period for this learning? Can they learn this from a recording?
14. What is natural selection?
15. Index cards for the following definitions:
a. Reproductive success
b. Adaptive behavior
c. Social behavior
d. Selfless behavior
e. Altruistic behavior
16. What is social behavior?
17. What is the difference between signaling pheromones and priming pheromones?
18. What is a visual signal?
19. How do male baboons show a threat display to a rival?
20. What do fireflies use for signaling?
21. What are tactile signs?
22. Why do bees perform the waggle dance?
23. How do assassin bugs use illegitimate signals to fool termites?
24. Index card: sexual selection definition and an example
25. How is reproductive success measured in males?
26. How is reproductive success measured in females?
27. Explain the following on an index card:
a. Cooperative Predator Avoidance: what is it and an example
b. The Selfish Herd: what is it and an example
c. Cooperative Hunting: What is it and an example
28. What is a cost of animals living in close association with each other?
29. Give an example of an altruistic behavior in insects.
30. What are the only eusocial mammals? What does that mean?
31. Explain the theory of inclusive fitness.
32. Compare and contrast the social organization of chimpanzees and bonobos.
33. What explanation for the differences observed in chimps and bonobos do scientists give?
34. What is a VNO? What would be the purpose of this?
