AP Biology: Summer Assignment 2017 North Atlanta High School

Instructor: Dr. T. A. Larry E-mail: LarryT@atlanta.k12.ga.us

Class Website: www.scienceisforever.com

Congratulations on choosing AP Biology as an elective course for the 2017-2018 school year! AP Biology is

designed to be reflective of an introductory college course for freshmen biology majors; therefore, it differs significantly

both in the amount of work and effort required of a high school science student and in the breadth and depth of biology

content covered by the instructor. Below is a breakdown of the 4 Big Ideas outlined in the AP Biology Curriculum

Framework:

Big Idea 1: The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life.

Big Idea 2: Biological systems utilize free energy and molecular building blocks to grow, to reproduce,

and to maintain dynamic homeostasis.

Essential Knowledge Standards: 2.A.1 – All living systems require constant input of free energy.

2.C.1 – Organisms use feedback mechanisms to maintain their internal environments and

respond to external environmental changes.

2.C.2 – Organisms respond to changes in their external environments.

2.D.2 – Homeostatic mechanisms reflect both common ancestry and divergence due to

adaptation in different environments.

2.D.3 – Biological systems are affected by disruptions to their dynamic homeostasis.

2.E.3 – Timing and coordination of behavior are regulated by various mechanisms and are

important in natural selection.

Big Idea 3: Living systems store, transmit, and respond to information essential to life processes.

Essential Knowledge Standards: 3.E.1 – Individuals can act on information and communicate with others.

Big Idea 4: Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions possess complex

properties.

Essential Knowledge Standards: 4.B.2 – Cooperative interactions within organisms promote efficiency in the use of energy and

matter.

In order for this class to successfully cover all topics and concepts outlined in the complete AP Biology

Curriculum Framework and for students to be successful on the AP Biology exam, the pace of this course must be

fast and some content must be covered outside of the instructional year. Therefore, your summer assignment is

designed to give us a head start on the AP Biology curriculum before we begin work in class in August. This year, you

will be working on assignments that cover the Essential Knowledge Standards outlined above which correspond with the

following major topics: Animal Behavior & Animal Form and Function.

Your main resource for completing the AP Biology summer assignment will be the Campbell/Reece Biology

textbook, 8th edition. Before the LAST day of school, you must visit my classroom (room 5157) and check out an AP

Biology textbook. Without the textbook you will not be able to complete the summer assignment. Please come and see

me personally to check out a textbook before the last day of school. If not, you will have to check out this book via your

local library or purchase access via an online subscription.

If you have any questions and/or concerns about the summer assignment during any portion of summer break, please do

not hesitate to contact me. I will check my school e-mail at least 2-3 times per week during the summer, so that will be

the best way to reach me.

Have a wonderful summer break!

The Summer Assignment!!!

Your summer assignment will cover two important topics: Animal Form & Function and Animal Behavior.

Your AP Biology textbook covers these topics in two different chapters: Chapter 40: Basic Principles of Animal Form &

Function, and Chapter 51: Animal Behavior. Your assignment will involve working with these two chapters as well as

reading scientific articles that correspond to the material. All components of your summer assignment must be

handwritten – typed assignments will not be accepted! Also, you will not be tested on this material upon your

immediate return to school, but you will be given a take-home exam covering the textbook material within the first week

of school. Therefore, carefully reading the chapters and doing quality work this summer will lead to greater success on

one of your first assignments this August. All AP Biology summer assignments are due on the first day of class– no

exceptions! The assignment has two components, which are outlined below:

Part I: AP Biology Textbook Readings with Corresponding Guided Readings

You will need to read Chapters 40 and 51 in your AP Biology textbook and complete the Guided Reading

questions(located at the end of this document) which will serve as a guide through the reading and comprehension

processes. Carefully reading the text and studying the diagrams is and will be an essential part of learning AP Biology

concepts. The quantity of questions in your Guided Readings has been kept to a minimum; therefore I expect quality

work when you answer these questions. Keep the following guidelines in mind while completing this assignment:

Only handwritten assignments will be accepted; typed work will not be accepted.

You must write thoughtfully composed answers, answer all parts of each question, and in

complete sentences; answers written in sentence fragments will not receive full credit.

Because I am expecting high quality work from you, your answers will be graded carefully for

correctness.

For many questions, you will not have sufficient space on the worksheet to write an appropriate

response. For these questions, write your answers on a separate piece of notebook paper.

Exceptions would be questions that require you to fill in the components of a table, which you

can do on the worksheet itself.

If your answers are identical to one or more of your classmates, you will receive no credit for this

portion of the assignment.

At the end of each Guided Reading you will find a series of blanks for “Self Quiz” answers. You

are not being given the chapter self quizzes as part of your summer assignment, so ignore this at

the end of the Guided Reading worksheets. You don’t have to do anything with it!

Not only should you put forth your best effort to earn the best grade possible on this assignment,

but how much effort you put into this assignment will determine how prepared you will be for

your take-home exam. Think ahead!

Part II: Scientific Article Analyses

You will be reading two scientific articles related to the two summer assignment topics: one that is classified as a

primary scientific article and one that is classified as a secondary scientific article. We will be reading and analyzing both

types of literature throughout the school year, and this assignment will not only teach you about animal behavior and

anatomy but will also serve as an introduction to the process that we will use during the regular school year.

First, you will read a secondary scientific article about how the circulatory system has evolved in different snake

species and why we see these various differences and adaptations. The title of the article is “Snakes, Blood Circulation

and Gravity,” and it was published in 1988 by Harvey B. Lillywhite. This will serve as a good introduction to scientific

articles in general. Next, you will read a primary scientific article about research that has been conducted about the

kangaroo rat and how it manages to survive in extreme desert conditions. The title of the article is “Kangaroo Rats

Revisited: Re-Evaluating a Classic Case of Desert Survival,” and it was published in 2002 by Randall L. Tracy and Glenn

E. Walsburg. This article is more formal and contains a lot of scientific jargon, so you will have to use your critical

thinking skills (which we will continue to develop throughout the year) to decipher the key points and major findings.

Your assignment is to read both of these articles (I have included guidelines about how to approach reading

scientific writing) and then analyze them by answering the article analysis questions (also included). Keep the following

guidelines in mind while completing this assignment:

This is not an assignment you want to begin with only a couple of days of summer left! It will

take time to thoroughly read the articles and answer the questions.

You can get a copy of both articles by performing a simple Google search. Type the name of the

article into Google, and the article will be retrieved. I recommend finding a PDF version of the

document for easier printing. Or, the articles can be found on our class website:

www.scienceisforver.com

Only handwritten assignments will be accepted; typed will not.

You must write your answers to the questions in complete sentences, and I will be grading for

correctness and the amount of thought and effort you put into your responses.

Write your answers to the analysis questions on two pieces of notebook paper, one for each

article. In other words, please keep your answers to the two articles separate.

If your answers are identical to one or more of your classmates, you will receive no credit for this

portion of the assignment.

Good luck!!!

How to Read and Approach Scientific Literature

What is the difference between a primary and secondary scientific article?

In scientific writing, primary literature is written by a team of scientists who have conducted their own

unique research and are now reporting the methods, results, and implications of their findings to the rest of the

scientific community. In other words, the information is being reported by the scientists who originally gathered

the information, it is not being told second-hand. Most of the time, primary scientific articles are broken down

into five main components: Abstract, Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results, and Discussion. Primary

literature is the main way that professional scientists communicate with one another, and it is a type of writing

that you will use frequently at the college level for research purposes. In addition, reading and analyzing primary

literature will improve your critical thinking and reasoning skills and it is a great way to see how scientific ideas

and concepts are being tested and applied to real-world scenarios.

On the other hand, secondary scientific literature is more informal and oftentimes presents information

using more everyday language and less scientific jargon. Sometimes secondary articles are written by the

scientists who have conducted the research, but it is oftentimes a secondhand reporting or review of studies that

have been completed by many different researchers in many different studies. Secondary articles are a good place

to start when you are just beginning research on a topic or want to know a variety of information about one

particular topic.

Where do I begin?

Reading scientific articles is different from reading most other kinds of literature. It is oftentimes very

technical and sometimes even dry because the main objective is usually not to entertain but to relay information to

the reader. You will probably have to re-read portions of the article several times before you comprehend what

the authors are saying; this is absolutely OK, and you should expect to be doing this when you read a scientific

article. Here are some tips and pointers to get you started and to help you with the reading and analysis processes:

1. Skim through the entire paper very quickly to get a basic idea of what the paper is about and how it is

structured. You should be able to tell very quickly if it is a primary or secondary article (see above), and

this will give you a better idea of how to approach reading the article.

2. Skim through the Abstract of the article first. The Abstract is designed to give the reader an overview of

the entire research paper, from introduction to discussion. Abstracts are very useful when you are looking

for research for a research paper; instead of having to read the entire article to determine whether or not it

is what you are looking for, you can save a lot of time by simply reading the Abstract. Because the

Abstract is an overview of the entire paper, there will probably be a lot in the Abstract that you don’t yet

understand. Simply skim the Abstract at first to get an idea of what the paper is about; you can come

back to it later after you’ve read the entire article.

3. Make a list of words and terms that are unfamiliar to you and that seem to appear multiple times in the

article. If there is a term the authors are using often that you don’t understand it will probably hinder your

ability to understand the entire article. Look up these words and terms that you don’t know in the

glossary of your textbook or a biology, anatomy, or physiology online search engine.

4. Carefully read each section of the article, one section at a time. You may find it useful to use a

highlighter or to underline information that you find important; it will probably help you when you

answer the analysis questions. For primary scientific articles, here is what you can expect to find:

a. The Introduction of the article will provide basic background information about the topic being

researched and should not be overly technical.

b. The Materials & Methods section will probably be a very technical description of the methods

that were used to perform the study, possibly even including the statistical analyses that the

authors used. You DO NOT have to completely comprehend everything the authors did in their

study; you just need a general, basic understanding of what the authors did. Just skim this

section.

c. The Results section will contain both a written description of what the authors found and the data

presented in some graphical form, like a table or a graph. Thoroughly read this section to see

what the authors discovered and carefully examine the tables and graphs.

d. The Discussion section explains the results in more detail and explores the implications of their

findings. This is where you can find what the authors’ conclusions are, so read this section

carefully as well.

5. Re-read the Abstract. Now, after reading the article, the Abstract should make much more sense and

provide a very nice overview of the entire article.

Scientific Article Analysis Questions

After carefully reading the scientific article, thoughtfully and completely answer the following analysis

questions. Remember, no typed work will be accepted! You will answer the same set of analysis questions for

each article you read.

1. Make a list of at least 6 words or terms that you have found in the article that are new to you or that you

do not understand. Define each of these new terms.

2. What kind of information did the authors provide that gives the reader an introduction to the topic while

also providing important background information?

3. What is the main purpose of this article? In other words, what is the key question the authors are asking

and addressing?

4. Did the authors use tables or figures to display their data? If so, how many? Summarize what

information/data each table or figure is providing the reader.

5. What are the main conclusions drawn by the author(s) of the article?

6. Do the authors explain why their findings are important? If so, describe it here.

7. Based on the work done in this article, what are some possible areas of research that could be

undertaken in the future still related to the same topic/concept? Sometimes the authors will state in the

article what work should be done in the future, but based on the conclusions the authors give you should

be able to come up with some further questions that still need answering.

8. Summarize your personal reaction to this article. Do you agree or disagree with the author(s)

conclusions? Does their research make sense? Are their conclusions/findings an important contribution

to science?