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AP Environmental Science - Summer Assignment

Dear AP Environmental Science Classes of 2014-2015,


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 and field experiments, writing reports, giving oral
presentations, participating in class discussions and doing other various class assignments.
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, we need to do some work over the summer &/or fall semester. Hopefully you will
find most of your assignment both informative and enjoyable. The purpose of this assignment is to get you thinking
about the environment in which we live and help prepare you for your studies in environmental science for the
upcoming school year. 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 1
st
day of school 8/11/14)).
The summer assignment consists of several parts some involving the information from the first few chapters in
our textbook and some from other research/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; however, the assignment will be much easier for you if you choose to use a textbook. You can check
out a text book from our school library Thursday AFTER FINALS (12:15 to 1PM) OR you can choose to purchase a
used textbook online from Amazon (See below for book details. The last time I checked they were available from
Amazon for $10-$20, including shipping for a good to new copy). There are other advantages to purchasing your
own text book such as being able to highlight, take notes, etc. . . in your textbook.
Following is directions for each part of your summer assignment . . .
1. Please answer questions from the Chapter 1, 2, 3 & General Environmental History study guide (attached). All questions
can be found by utilizing a variety of resources OR more easily by reading the first three chapters of your textbook:
Environmental Science, Earth as a Living Planet (6
th
edition) by Botkin & Keller. Sometime during the first week of
class you will take a test on these three chapters.
2. I want each of you to pick a local issue that affects the environment here in Folsom or the Sacramento 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. Water is essential for all living things including humans. In this part of the assignment I want you to think about all the ways
in which you use water everyday. Figure out how much water you use personally everyday. Use a chart to show all the
ways you use water and how much total water you used in gallons everyday (Dont forget washing clothes & dishes,
watering lawns, cooking, etc. . .). Research how much water is used daily by Americans, Californians, & Sacramento
County residents. Write a brief report on your water usage and how it compares to the water usage to the other groups.
4. Take a large plastic garbage bag and collect all your personal (not your whole familys) solid waste for exactly one week.
This should include paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, metal, rubber foam products, leather, etc, everything except icky,
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 you 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 impressing thing you learned?
Please staple parts 1 through 4 together and turn them in to me August 11
th
, 2014. Please contact me
via e-mail at kmmoore@fcusd.org if you have any questions or concerns.
Good luck and I will see you next year! Mrs. Moore


APES - Chapters 1, 2, 3 & General Environmental History
Study Guide

Please answer the following questions on a SEPARATE sheet of paper in COMPLETE
sentences. The answers can be found in our textbook, Environmental Science: Earth as a
Living Planet (6
th
Edition) by Botkin & Keller OR you can find the answers by doing
research on the Internet or in a variety of other texts.


Chapter 1
1. When did the most dramatic increase in the history of the human population occur?
2. When in human history has the population seen great declines?
3. What is meant by the term population bomb?
4. What factors have contributed the most to the large increase in the human population?
5. Why do famines occur even though we now have the technology to produce enough food to feed the world?
6. What is sustainability?
7. What is carrying capacity?
8. What is the carrying capacity of the Earth for humans?
9. List 3 environmental problems specifically associated with urbanization (not just increased total population).
10. Define the following environmental justifications:
a. Utilitarian
b. Ecological
c. Moral
d. Aesthetic
e. Economical
11. According to Frederick Law Olmsted, what benefits are provided by planting vegetation in cities?


Chapter 2
1. What makes science different from other subjects/ideas such as religion, ethics & morals?
2. What is deductive reasoning?
3. What is inductive reasoning?
4. What is a premise? Give an example.
5. Which type of reasoning is science based on inductive or deductive reasoning?
6. What is the difference between accuracy and precision?
7. If a small bone is found and measured to be exactly 2.1 cm long, how should the measurement be recorded?
8. Define the following:
a. Observation
b. Inference
c. Fact
d. Dependent variable
e. Independent variable
f. Manipulated variable
g. Responding variable
h. Controlled experiment
i. Operational definitions
j. Quantitative data
k. Qualitative data
l. Theory
9. What is the scientific method?
10. Why is the scientific method important?
11. What are the basic steps of the scientific method?
12. What are some aspects and limitations to the early approaches to environmental science/issues?


Chapter 3
1. What is a system?
2. What is the difference between an open and a closed system? Give an example of each.
3. What is negative feedback? Give an example of negative feedback in environmental science.
4. What is positive feedback? Give an example of positive feedback in environmental science.
5. What is exponential growth?
6. What is doubling time?
7. How is doubling time calculated?
8. If a population has a growth rate of 5%, what is the populations doubling time?
9. Sketch a graph of exponential growth.
10. What is the principle of Uniformitarianism? Why is this principle important to environmental science?
11. When will a system be said to be in a steady state?
12. What is Average Residence Time (ART)?
13. How is ART calculated?
14. Calculate the following ART: A 5000 liter fish tank has a pump to filter and recirculate the water. The rate
of throughput due to the pump is 1000 liters/hour. What is the ART of the water in the tank?
15. Define the following:
a. Biota
b. Biosphere
c. Ecosystem
d. Gaia Hypothesis


General Environmental History & Policy
1. How long has the species Homo sapiens lived on Earth?
2. When did the domestication of wild plants and animals occur?
3. What were the major stimuli for the Industrial Revolution?
4. What is the current human population?
5. What are the five most populous countries in the world?
6. How is the total effect of humans upon the environment measured?
7. Why was the population density of the first farmers much higher than the density of hunters and gatherers?
8. When did the first Earth day in the US take place?
9. Describe the role and/or impact of the development of the following:
a. Creation of the first national park
b. Establishment of the first federal forest reserves and wildlife refuges
c. Establishment of the Department of the Interior
d. Development of the US Forest Service

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