Dear Future Carmel High School AP Biology Student,
To ensure you take advantage of your time this summer, as well as help get you prepared for next fall, you are requested to work on your first AP Biology assignment over break. The details of the assignment are described below.
Your first task is to read the book Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin. Dr. Shubin is an interesting character, a medical school anatomy professor who is a trained and practicing paleontologist. A good popular science writer, he explains, in understandable terms, the physiology and structure of modern humans using the evolutionary evidence of our animal ancestors. You may have already seen the PBS mini-series based on it.
We have done our best to find multiple ways for you to acquire Your Inner Fish. They include:
Purchasing it online. Amazon charges about $11.00 for it new, less for used copies.
Purchasing it from a local bookstore. Barnes and Noble on Greyhound Plaza has been notified that they may have higher demand for it. Weare hoping the keep it in stock. The list price for the paperback is $16.
Check it out from the Carmel Clay Public Library. Upon our request, they ordered more copies of the print edition; they should have several available to check out. CCPL should also have Nooks for check out from the reference desk and 2 versions of the E-book for check out. Since there will likely be a high demand for these resources from the library over the summer, it might be easier to just purchase it yourself.
Now that you have acquired and read the book, what should you do next? For each chapter you will do three things:
- Write a summary of the chapter, explaining the major themes and conclusions. A reasonable summary might be about half a page, single-spaced.
- Identify one specific experiment or observation from the chapter and, using appropriate terminology, describe in detail what evidence is proposed.
- Justify how that evidence (from #2 above) supports a fundamental hypothesis or conclusion concerning evolution, genetics, geology, physiology, etc.
There are 11 chapters plus an epilogue/afterword (you should read, but do not need to discuss the epilogue/afterword). This entails about 11, ½- ¾ pages of writing. Please focus on the science discussed, not necessarily his storytelling. This exercise should help you be ready to discuss your ideas and insights the first day of school. It is in your best interest to not wait until August to start on this task.
If you have any questions concerning this assignment, please feel free to contact us via email.
Sincerely,
Dr. Daniel MarbleMr. Eric Rauch
AP Biology Teachers
Carmel High School