WELCOME TO SP BIOLOGY
Dr. Cappelletti’s “Summer of Biology” 2017
Dun….dun…dun…dun…dun…
Is it safe to go back in the water?
NO! Like the Great White sharks, there lurks the AP Biology Summer Assignment!
This summer you will dive into the world of biology like you never thought you would.
We will explore many topics to wet your appetite for the coming year of hard work.
This summer assignment has been designed for five objectives:
1) To get you to think during those summer months to keep your mind sharp,
because I will expect a lot out of it come August!
2) To expand your vocabulary by familiarizing you with terms that we will be using
in class
3) To introduce you to major concepts from AP Biology through non-classroom
methods of learning.
4) To have you earn three strong grades to help you begin the first quarter with
confidence
5) To decrease the amount of new material that you will have to learn during the
school year.
If you have decided to drop this class - you MUST contact Dr. Cappelletti immediately ( ), and your counselor, so you can be placed in another course/class.
Get ready to dive in J
ASSIGNMENT # 1 Due date June 19th
1. Send your e-mail “Letter of Introduction” to Dr. Cappelletti
e-mail:
"Letter of Introduction" e-mail
1. Follow these instructions for full credit – 15 points - Email Must be received by June
19th for credit (15 Points)
2. Send your e-mail "Letter of Introduction" to Dr. Cappelletti
e-mail:
Email format instructions:
a) Subject Box: type the following: Introduction: your full name
b)Salutation: Dear/Hello Dr. Cappelletti,
c) Body of Letter: Tell me something about yourself using complete sentences and
correct grammar. No AIM or Text message format.
Example: UR MBS - translation – You are my best student. ?
d) Closing; Sincerely/Regards, double space and then type your full name
e) Click and send! If you followed the instructions – you just received 15 points.
J Too easyJ
Any and all communication with me needs to follow the above format. Your college professors will expect you to e-mail them using the above protocol. You are taking a college class, so you should be introduce to, and become familiar with college expectations.
After completing Assignment #1, I will send you an email and invite you to join http://www.nicenet.org/ – you will be given details in the e-mail. It is extremely important that the e-mail you use when you send your "Letter of Introduction" is an e-mail you will have access to ALL summer! I will be communicating using e-mails throughout the summer and it is IMPERATIVE I have the correct address.
Remember there are no excuses such as:
a) "Dr. Cappelletti, I sent you the wrong e-mail address for the summer assignment"
- you will receive NO CREDIT for assignments –
- your 1st quarter grade will reflect the "zero" –
When you receive the invitation you will be given instruction on how to sign in to your account in Nicenet
a) I will provide you with a "username" and password" make sure you save the information (maybe a word document in an AP Bio Folder on your computer)
b) Must be signed in by June 26th. Worth 15 points.
Time needed to complete Assignments #1 and email:
10-15 minutes – Shark Tank Points = 30
Check your e-mail regularly throughout the summer for messages from
Dr. Cappelletti J
Threaded Discussion in Nicenet
The topics covered in Assignments 2 and 3 below will appear as a "Threaded Discussion" in "Nicenet"
Once you have signed into the class (assignment #1) "join the class" in Nicenet, you will need to comment on the topics and at least one of your classmates posts (2 posts total per TD). Each session will be open for 5 days. Please make sure you post before the forum closes for credit. Each threaded discussion is worth 10 points for an assignment totaling 60 shark tank points. You will be graded on the information you enter. You will not be given credit for postings such as: I agree with you. You must state why you agree and be specific, using information from researching the topic. This is something you will be doing in college. Many professors require their students to comment in threaded discussion forums.
Time needed to complete Assignment #2: approximately 6 hours
Starts June 26th: Each threaded discussion topic lasts 5 days. This includes weekends!! Total days threaded discussion forum will be open: 30 days (August 1st). It should take you 1 hour per topic
Total time per student for entire 30 day assignment: 6 hours or less
ASSIGNMENT #2 Due July 1st
RESEARCH:
1. a) Behavior/habitats of Great White Sharks and 5 other species
b) Name and compare the 5 other species of sharks with the Great White
c) Research the types of wild life (plants/animals) living in the aquatic area (Pacific Ocean) from Malibu to San Diego CA
d) Threaded Discussion topic 1; based on what you researched on sharks (a through c): Do you think climate change has effected these sharks Why or Why not? Opens June 26th closes July 1st.
e) Write and post your research to the TD (threaded discussion) in
nicenet. I expect you to read and comment on at least one other
student’s post in the TD
ASSIGNMENT #3
Timely Topic Project: Read the following article taken from Science Daily (June 13, 2011) -- An Emory University study suggests that the brain activity of teens, recorded while they are listening to new songs, may help predict the popularity of the songs
Teen brain Data may predict Pop Song Success
Study Finds:
ABOVE ILLUSTRATION: Brain regions positively correlated with the average likability of the song: cuneus, orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum. (Credit: Image courtesy of Emory University)
Science Daley
"We have scientifically demonstrated that you can, to some extent, use neuroimaging in a group of people to predict cultural popularity," says Gregory Berns, a neuroeconomist and director of Emory's Center for Neuropolicy.
The Journal of Consumer Psychology is publishing the results of the study, conducted by Berns and Sara Moore, an economics research specialist in his lab.
In 2006, Berns' lab selected 120 songs from MySpace pages, all of them by relatively unknown musicians without recording contracts. Twenty-seven research subjects, aged 12 to 17, listened to the songs while their neural reactions were recorded through functional magnetic resolution imaging (fMRI). The subjects were also asked to rate each song on a scale of one to five.
The data was originally collected to study how peer pressure affects teenagers' opinions. The experiment used relatively unknown songs to try to ensure that the teens were hearing them for the first time.
Three years later, while watching "American Idol" with his two young daughters, Berns realized that one of those obscure songs had become a hit, when contestant Kris Allen started singing "Apologize" by One Republic.
"I said, 'Hey, we used that song in our study,'" Berns recalls. "It occurred to me that we had this unique data set of the brain responses of kids who listened to songs before they got popular. I started to wonder if we could have predicted that hit."
A comparative analysis revealed that the neural data had a statistically significant prediction rate for the popularity of the songs, as measured by their sales figures from 2007 to 2010.
"It's not quite a hit predictor," Berns cautions, "but we did find a significant correlation between the brain responses in this group of adolescents and the number of songs that were ultimately sold."
Previous studies have shown that a response in the brain's reward centers, especially the orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum, can predict people's individual choices -- but only in those people actually receiving brain scans.
The Emory study enters new territory. The results suggest it may be possible to use brain responses from a group of people to predict cultural phenomenon across a population -- even in people who are not actually scanned.
The "accidental discovery," as Berns describes it, has limitations. The study included only 27 subjects, and they were all teenagers, who make up only about 20 percent of music buyers.
The majority of the songs used in the study were flops, with negligible sales. And only three of the songs went on to meet the industry criteria for a certified hit: More than 500,000 unit sales, including albums that had the song as a track and digital downloads.
"When we plotted the data on a graph, we found a 'sweet spot' for sales of 20,000 units," Berns said. The brain responses could predict about one-third of the songs that would eventually go on to sell more than 20,000 units.
The data was even clearer for the flops: About 90 percent of the songs that drew a mostly weak response from the neural reward center of the teens went on to sell fewer than 20,000 units.
Another interesting twist: When the research subjects were asked to rate the songs on a scale of one to five, their answers did not correlate with future sales of the songs.
That result may be due to the complicated cognitive process involved in rating something, Berns theorizes. "You have to stop and think, and your thoughts may be colored by whatever biases you have, and how you feel about revealing your preferences to a researcher."
On the other hand, "you really can't fake the brain responses while you're listening to the song," he says. "That taps into a raw reaction."
The pop music experiment is merely "a baby step," Berns says. As a leader in the nascent field of neuroeconomics, he is interested in larger questions of how our understanding of the brain can explain human decision-making. Among his current projects is a study of sacred values, and their potential for triggering violent conflict.
"My long-term goal is to understand cultural phenomena and trends," Berns says. "I want to know where ideas come from, and why some of them become popular and others don't. It's ideas and the way that we think that determines the course of human history. Ultimately, I'm trying to predict history.
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Emory University. The original article was written by Carol Clark.
For this assignment you will be using the Threaded Discussion forum in nicenet as you did in Assignment 2.
I will be posting the list A through F below in Nicenet. You are to answer/comment on each of the topics. Worth 50 points
A. Research author of this article: What else has he/she researched and published (Post
opens July 2nd and closes July 7th)
BDefine the following anatomy: orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum
a) discuss why these anatomical structures may be of importance with regards to
the teen brain (Post opens July 8th closes July 13th)
C.History of MRI
a) describe the different types of MRI, how are they similar; how do they differ
(Opens July 14th and closes July 19th
D.Does this article have any place in Biology? Why/why not? (post opens July 20th
closes July 25th)
E.Explain what you think the author means by the following statement.
It's ideas and the way that we think that determines the course of human history. Ultimately, I'm trying to predict history. Do you agree/disagree with author –explain(post opens July 26th and closes August 1st)
ASSIGNMENT 4: This is NOT a written assignment
For this part of your summer assignment, you will be familiarizing yourself with science terms that we will be using at different points throughout the year. Go through this list and refresh your memory on any term you do not recognize or understand.
1. adaptation of an animal
2. adaptation of a plant
3. abscisic acid
4. actin
5. amniotic egg
6. amylase
7. angiosperm
8. animal that has a segmented body
9. annelid
10. anther & filament of stamen
11. arthropod
12. archaebacteria
13. autotroph
14. auxin producing area of a plant
15. basidiomycete
16. Batesian mimicry
17. biological magnification
18. bryophyte
19. C 4 plant
20. Calvin cycle
21. carbohydrate – fibrous
22. cambium
23. cellulose
24. chitin
25. chlorophyta
26. cnidarian
27. coelomate
28. conifer leaf
29. commensalism
30. connective tissue
31. cuticle layer of a plant
32. deciduous leaf
33. deuterostome
34. dicot plant with flower & leaf
35. diploid chromosome number
36. echinoderm
37. ectotherm
38. endosperm
39. endotherm
40. enzyme
41. epithelial tissue
42. ethylene
43. eubacteria
44. eukaryote
45. exoskeleton
46. fermentation
47. flower ovary
48. frond
49. fruit – dry with seed
50. fruit – fleshy with seed
51. gametophyte
52. gastropod
53. genetically modified organism
54. gibberellins
55. glycogen
56. gymnosperm cone
57. haploid chromosome number
58. heartwood
59. hermaphrodite
60. insect
61. K-strategist
62. keratin
63. leaf – gymnosperm
64. lepidoptera
65. lichen
66. lignin
67. lipid used for energy storage
68. littoral zone organism
69. long-day plant
70. meristem
71. modified leaf of a plant
72. modified root of a plant
73. modified stem of a plant
74. monocot plant with flower & leaf
75. muscle fiber – striated
76. mutualism
77. mycelium
78. mycorrhizae
79. myosin
80. nematode
81. niche
82. nymph stage of an insect
83. parasite
84. parenchyma cells
85. phloem
86. pine cone – female
87. platyhelminthes
88. pollen
89. pollinator
90. porifera
91. prokaryote
92. protein – fibrous
93. protein – globular
94. protostome
95. pteridophyte
96. r-strategist
97. radial symmetry
98. rhizome
99. scale from animal with two-chambered heart
100. spore
101. sporophyte
102. stem – herbaceous