AP Environmental Science Summer Assignment Package (Draft)
Verona High School AP Environmental Science 2015-2016
Summer Assignment
Welcome to AP Environmental Science! Students who enroll in APES should be ready and willing to devote sufficient time, focus & energy to class assignments, including daily text readings, taking extensive notes in and outside of class, preparing for frequent exams and quizzes, participating in laboratory experiments, writing reports, giving oral presentations, and participating in class discussions. Students who are not able or willing to devote sufficient time, focus and energy to this course should consider taking this course at another time.
In order to be better prepared, work needs to be done over the summer. The purpose of this assignment is to encourage thinking about the environment, and challenges that humanity faces to ensure a sustainable quality of life. These thought processes are necessary for success in Environmental Science. You should plan on immersing yourself in the subject of environmental science for the next twelve months. Please complete the following assignment this summer (DUE the 1st day of school).
The summer assignment consists of several parts – some involving the information from the first few chapters in our textbook and some from other research and resources. The first part of the assignment involves answering questions from our textbook. This part of the assignment can be completed through the use of various internet resources. The textbook for the course is given out at the AP Environmental class meeting at the end of school year or you can see me for a copy of the book.
Allow yourself ample time to complete the assignment. This assignment was designed to take several weeks to complete, working a reasonable amount of time per day. Do not stress yourself, and short yourself by trying to cram this assignment at the end of the summer. This assignment may seem like a lot of work but it is designed to give you a good foundation for which to approach the AP Environmental course, and prepare you for the type of classroom discussions we will have during this course.
The Summer Assignment has multiple parts. Below are listed the components:
1. Please answer questions from Chapters 1 & 2. All questions can be found by utilizing a variety of resources OR more easily by reading the first two chapters of your textbook: Living in the Environment (18th edition) by Miller & Spoolman. Sometime during the first week of class you will take a test on these two chapters.
2. Pick a local issue that affects the environment here in Verona itself or the Tristate (New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania) area. Please research your topic and write a two to three page report about it. The report should be typed, double-spaced, and margins should not exceed 1 inch in width. Please include diagrams and pictures if you can find them (pictures and diagrams do not count as text space). Also include your sources of information (you need at least 4). Try to use several sources of information: books, magazines, newspapers, Internet, TV, radio, professional journals, and talking directly to expert professionals. Please avoid plagiarism (copying from friends or the Internet). If I find any traces of plagiarism, you will get a zero on this assignment and you will be reported to the school administration.
3. Familiarity with the philosophies of environmental science is essential for this course. You will need to choose a book from the attached list and write a 2-3 page book review (see attached requirements) on that book. This IS NOT a summary of the book.
4. Take a large plastic garbage bag and collect all your personal (not your whole family’s) solid waste for exactly one week. This should include paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, metal, rubber foam products, leather, etc, everything except gross food waste which you should throw away. After the week, make an analysis of your bag of solid waste and answer the following:
a. How much did your bag weigh and what percent of your body weight did it represent?
b. Which category from above made up the largest percent of your waste?
c. Estimate what percent of your bag of waste is recyclable.
d. List all the categories of waste you collected.
e. What was the most impressive thing that you learned through this process?
f. What were your impressions of solid municipal waste prior to this experience? How have your impressions about solid municipal waste changed/evolved as a result of this experience?
Please gather all 4 parts of the assignment into a soft binder and have the assignment ready for submission on the first day of school. There is no extension for this assignment, as you have the entire summer to work on this. You may email me at if you run into any difficulties or have any questions.
BOOK REVIEW
For your summer assignment you will be required to read a book pertaining to some issue(s) in environmental science AND write a 2-3 page book review (double-spaced, typed). The list of choices for a book follows the assignment instructions.
THIS IS NOT A SUMMARY OF THE BOOK
1)Your review should identify the author’s purpose for writing the book. In other words, what is the environmental issue(s) of the book? What set of questions about the environment is the author trying to answer? USE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES!
2)Who is the audience for the book? Scientists, government officials, economists, the general public. Support your answer by using SPECIFIC EXAMPLES.
3)Keep in mind that the author is making an argument about an environmental issue. After identifying the argument and the way it is presented, your job as the reviewer is to give an opinion of the book. Your review can be based on the following questions:
- Whose point of view is the author supporting? Whose point of view does the author reject?
- Do you believe the author’s argument is convincing? Why or why not?
- Has the author, in your opinion, based his or her argument on sufficient scientific evidence? Why or why not?
4)Finally, your critical review should provide the reader with an evaluation of the book as a whole. How strongly would you recommend the book to other readers?
Please site all quotes by putting the appropriate page number in parentheses from the book you chose.
Reading list:
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus Charles C. Mann
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created Charles C. Mann
Silent Spring Rachel Carson
Billions & Billions : Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium Carl Sagan
A Sand County Almanac Aldo Leopold
Sociobiology E.O. Wilson
The Diversity of Life E.O.Wilson
Ishmael Daniel Quinn (novel)
Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond
Grading Rubric and Guide for AP Environmental Science Papers
Your papers will be held to a high standard of grading. Unlike the other sciences there is an important writing component to this course. The summer assignment and papers that will be assigned throughout the course will adhere to the following rubric scheme:
Exceeds expectations (A, A+ )
Paper is clearly written and fully addresses the question. Argument is clear, relevant, and strongly made. Environmental science vocabulary is appropriately used. Paper may make connections to other realms of environmental science, or may address other scientific disciplines. Clear data supports conclusions, which reflect sound scientific reasoning. Paper has works cited properly formatted.
Meets Expectations (B, A-)
Paper is understandable and fully addresses the question. Argument is clear and relevant. Environmental science vocabulary is appropriately used. Data is used to support conclusions. Conclusions reflect sound scientific reasoning. Paper has works cited properly formatted.
Approaches Expectations (C, C+, B-)
Paper is mostly understandable and partially addresses the question. Argument, though unclear at times,approaches clarity and relevance. Environmental science vocabulary is used, though sometimes incorrectly. Weak data is used to support conclusions. Conclusions presented reflect weak scientific reasoning. Paper has works cited properly formatted.
Fails to meet Expectations (D-, D, D+, C-)
Paper is incomprehensible or paper fails to address the topic. Argument presented is repetitive or irrelevant. Environmental science vocabulary incorrectly used or not used at all. No data used to support conclusions. Conclusions, if presented, are unclear and do not reflect sound scientific reasoning. Paper has works cited incorrectly.
Unacceptable (F)
Paper fails to address the topic, or the paper is incomplete. No argument is present, because there is no data. Paper did not cite any work. Appears the paper is just submitted to avoid a zero.