AP Environmental Science Summer Assignments

To help prepare for the upcoming school year, you will be responsible for three assignments over the summer.

Part I—Math Practice

This year in APES you will hear the two words most dreaded by high school students…NO CALCULATORS! That’s right, you cannot use a calculator on the AP Environmental Science exam. Since the regular tests you will take are meant to help prepare you for the APES exam, you will not be able to use calculators on regular tests all year either. The good news is that most calculations on the tests and exams are written to be fairly easy calculations and to come out in whole numbers or to only a few decimal places. The challenge is in setting up the problems correctly and knowing enough basic math to solve the problems. With practice, you will be a math expert by the time the exam rolls around. So bid your calculator a fond farewell, tuck it away so you won’t be tempted, and start sharpening your math skills!

You will need to turn in a separate sheet with ALL OF YOUR WORK SHOWN for the math problems included in the YELLOW PACKET. Please number the problems, leave space in between problems, and circle final answer for each problem (make sure answers include units)

This assignment will be due on the first day of school. It is worth 20 points. Failure to complete the assignment will result in no credit. The assignment will not be accepted late.

Part II—Introductory Material

Both chapters 1 and 2 provide an excellent introduction to the course. However, given the volume of material that must be covered in the AP Environmental Science curriculum, these chapters will be assigned to you over the summer so that we can get into the heart of environmental science more quickly.

  • For each chapter, you will:
  1. Create a separate outline of the chapter on loose-leafincluding all vocabulary terms(either make a list of all vocab terms separately or have them underlined within the chapter outline/highlighted).
  2. Outline should include section headings throughout.
  3. Complete all multiple choice questions at the end of the chapter. Number them and only include the answer. Do not need to write out the question.
  4. Complete BOTH Free-Response Questions(FRQ) at the end of each chapter. Make sure they are numbered and include all labels in your answers.

This assignment will be due on the first day of school. It is also worth 20 points. Failure to complete the assignment will result in no credit. The assignment will not be accepted late. While we will briefly go over these concepts, there will be a test on chapters 1 & 2 during the first or second week of school. The FRQ on the test will be one of the four you completed over the summer.

Part III — Current Event Articles

In environmental science, it is important to know about current issues in the news. One of our goals is to familiarize you with environmental issues that are important to our community, country and world. We will be reading and discussing a variety of current events throughout the school year as well. Over the course of the summer, find 3 recent articles related to environmental science.

All articles should be current (during the past year or so) and taken from a reliable source. The sources may be scientific publications, popular magazines, newspapers etc. Try the NY times (especially Tuesday), Washington Post, National Geographic, Discover Magazine, Natural History Magazine, Treehugger.com, etc. I do not care if you use a paper or online copy of your article as long as you have a working URL and it is property cited.

Each article should relate to a different topic chosen from the following list. You may not choose the same topic or issue twice. As the year progresses you will be able to cover all of the topics!

Environmental Law/ Legislation / Ecosystems / Global Climate Change / Overfishing/Overhunting / Preserving Our Biodiversity
Water Pollution / Human Population Growth / Waste Management / Geology / Renewable Energy
Nonrenewable Energy / Food/Agriculture / Air Pollution / Human Health and Environmental Risks / Deforestation

Article Analysis Directions:

Include all of the following components and clearly identify each component with headings. Each analysis should be either typed or very neatly written in blue or black ink. Each article should be on its own paper.

  • Title of the Article
  • List which environmental topic it refers to.
  • Summary: brief summary that tells me what the article is about. Write 1 paragraph summarizing the content.
  • Analysis:
  • Points of view – does the article have more than one side/position? If so what are they?
  • Bias – Is this article biased in any way? In your opinion, does the author give a positive, negative, or neutral view of the environmental science topic?
  • Controversy: Is there any controversy surrounding this article? If so briefly explain it.
  • Your perspective: State your perspective on this news article based on your personal knowledge of the topic and your reading of the article.
  • Effect on you: How does this topic relate to you or affect you?
  • Include the APA citation for the article as well as the working URL.

This assignment will be due on the first day of school. It is worth 30 points. Failure to complete the assignment will result in no credit. The assignment will not be accepted late.

If you have any questions regarding this assignment, please contact me