AP Environmental Science Summer Assignment 2016-2017
Mrs. Carlson, [email protected]
Welcome to AP Environmental Science! This class is highly intensive, with a lot of material that needs to be
covered. Please be aware that part of taking this class is commitment to being on time, on task, and hard
working. Although AP Environmental Science (APES) is a huge commitment, we will have a lot of fun. I look
forward to working with each one of you next year!
Here are a few items of interest before you get started on the summer assignment. I know the words “summer
assignment” tends to send chills down any high school student’s spine, but I think that you will find that this
assignment will be very beneficial to you as we start the school year in the fall and even a little fun! The reason
I am giving you a summer assignment is to keep your mind sharp and thinking, so you are ready to hit the
ground running!
There are a few assignments to be completed prior to the first day of school. One of these mandatory
assignments is a Math assignment. All work is to be shown. The Math portion will be due on August 24th,
during your class period—not by the end of the day
Mandatory Assignment #1- Introduction letter
First, I would like to know a little about who you are so your first assignment is to send me an email.
Yup….that’s it! Your first AP Environmental Science grade will be sending me an email…if only all of the
grades were this easy! I will reply so you have electronic record that your assignment was received. Also we
will use the Internet and the Web a lot next year for this course, so let’s get used to communicating via email. Here is what I would like you to email me at [email protected] before the end of this summer:
Due Date: July 08, 2016
Draft an e-mail to me following these rules:
a. Use clearly written, full sentences. Do not abbreviate words s u c h a s y o u w o u l d i f y o u w e r e
t e x t i n g a friend. Use spell check! This is a professional communication like you would have with
a college professor, so let’s practice for your rapidly approaching future!
b. Address it to the appropriate teacher:
Regina Carlson
AP Environmental Science Teacher
Aledo High School
[email protected]
c. Make the Subject: “APES: Introduction to <Insert Your Name Here>”
(Do not include the quote marks or the brackets, just the words)
d. Begin the e-mail with a formal salutation, like “Mrs. Carlson,” or “Dear Mrs. Carlson,”
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e. Now introduce yourself (your name) and tell me a little bit about yourself, like:
1. Your full name (& nickname that you go by if you have one) & stuff about you!
2. Who was your last science teacher? What class?
3. What other science classes have you taken? Are planning to take next year?
4. What do you like to do (hobbies, sports, music, interests, etc.)?
5. Do you have a job or plan on getting a job next year? What kind?
6. What are your personal strengths when it comes to learning new material?
7. What causes you to struggle in a course?
8. What is the most effective way for you to prepare for a test?
9. How many AP classes have you taken so far? How many have you passed with a 3 or higher?
10. How many AP classes are you taking this year (please list)?
11. Have you or will you be taking anatomy and physiology?
12. Have you or will you be taking AP Biology?
13. Was there anything that you liked or disliked about your earlier science classes?
14. What are you looking forward to the most in APES?
15. What are you most anxious about in APES?
16. Why are you taking APES? What do you hope to accomplish/gain?
f.
End the e-mail with a formal closing: “Cordially”, “Sincerely”, “Warm regards”, etc. and add
your name as if you signed a letter.
g. Since you have followed the instructions in this packet, send the e-mail to me. I look forward to it!
Don’t worry! There is no right or wrong answer….be honest so that I can figure out the best way to
help you next year! ☺
Mandatory Assignment #2 – Signing up for class communication
1. Join our class Twitter (you can sign up for this on your own) I do not use tweet as often but we do have a
class twitter page. We will use it mostly for recent environmental article reviews. Again you should follow our
class twitter page, however for professional reasons – I will NOT follow your personal pages on Twitter.

Twitter account: AHS Mrs. Carlson @carlsongoesapes
2. Join our Remind Text Class. When I need to send out fast class information quickly or send out reminders I
use Remind. It will send you automatic text messages from me.
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3. Join our APES Google Classroom:
Log in to your AHS Google Email (Gmail)
To join a class with a course code:
1. Sign in to Classroom at classroom.google.com.
2. Click +.
3. Enter the code: 20dtm2 in the box and click Join.
This is where you will post some class assignments. If you are having difficulties with this contact me at:
[email protected]
Mandatory Assignment #3 - Get your supplies for APES
Get yourself ready for class! Below is the list of supplies that you will need for class. WOW, it is quite a list, but
one thing you can be assured of is that our class is interactive – that being said you will need the proper tools
to engage in project based, interactive learning, labs and classroom activities.
1. Composition Journal, college ruled. Will be used daily in class for notes and daily activities.
 ONE 1 ½ -2 inch binder White with clear cover for title page. Will be kept in class and used to store
Review Materials for APES Exam and carbon copies of your labs. This will be your review binder and
very important the last quarter of school.
 Lab Notebook - Pick an option
o Option 1: Composition Journal – Graphing paper. Can be found at Walmart, Target or Staples
o Option 2: National Brand Laboratory Notebook, 4 X 4 Quad, Brown, Carbonless, 11 x 9.25
Inches, 100 Sets (43649) Can be purchased at Amazon for $19.95 or through various office
supply stores Will be used for all required APES labs.
 Blue/Black pens and Red Pen (for corrections) – & pencils (for testing days)
 Pack of highlighters (several different colors). Will be used for journal.
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Colored pencils or markers that WILL NOT bleed through pages of notebook
Stapler and or double sided tape. Will be used to secure items in your journal
Post it notes (various sizes and colors – pack of small, medium, and large post-its) will be used for
various journal activities.
Pack of Post it divider tabs for journal
Pack of 8 dividers for your review binder
ONE bottle/container of Clorox wipes – Will be used for those messy labs and sanitation
TWO rolls of paper towels – Will be used during various labs and activities for clean up
Mandatory Assignment #4 – Get your journal ready for Semester ONE of APES!
In our APES course, students keep an interactive student notebook (ISN), where you will document your
learning and interact with course content. On any given day, we could be doing one of the following things in
our notebook:
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Solving practice problems
Interpreting graphs or diagrams
Creating graphic organizers or concept maps about APES content
Writing practice free response questions
The activities we will do in our journal are meant to allow you to interact with the APES content of our class in
various ways. The more ways you interact with the concepts, the more likely you will be able to apply them to
new situations, whether it is a test or a lab investigation.
To create your journal, you will need a Composition notebook. This is important because by the end of the
year, you will have a homemade study guide.
This summer:
You will need to decorate the cover of your ISN with a collage of some sort that represents you. I recommend
that you cover the front of your notebook with clear packing tape once you have completed the cover to add
durability, but also to protect the collage you make.
We will go over how to set up the inside of the ISN in class on the second day of class so be sure you have
your notebook with you in class so that you can get it set up.
It is important that you keep up with your ISN on a daily basis, since this learning log is the physical
representation of your processing of course concepts. We will use this notebook in class on a daily basis to
catalog all the learning that you do both inside and outside the classroom, so it is important that you have it
with you each day. The picture below illustrates a little bit about what an ISN is, and how it might appear.
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Mandatory Assignment #6 – Math Review (don’t worry, there are only 11 problems!)
Percentages
17% = 17/100 =
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= 0.17
Remember that “percent” literally means divided by 100.
A percentage is a measure of the part of the whole, or part divided by whole.
a. 15 million is what percentage of the US population?

=
= .05 = 5%
b. What is 20% of this $15 bill so that I can give a good tip?
 $15 x 20% = $15 x 0.2 = $3
Rates
rate = slope = m =
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=
All of the above are ways to look at rates. The last equation is the easiest way to calculate a rate,
especially from looking at a graph.
Rates will often be written using the word ‘per’ followed by a unit of time,
o cases per year
o grams per minute
o miles per hour
The word ‘per’ means to divide, so miles per gallon is actually the number of miles driven divided by
one gallon.
Rates are calculating how much an amount changes in a given amount of time.
Scientific Notation
Thousand = 103 = 1,000
Million = 106 = 1,000,000 (is used when talking about people in the US)
Billion = 109 = 1,000,000,000 (is used when talking about people on Earth)
Trillion = 1012 = 1,000,000,000,000 (is used when talking about the National debt)
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When using very large numbers, scientific notation is often easiest to manipulate.
o For example, the US population is 300 million people or 300x106 or 3x108
When adding or subtracting, exponents must be the same. Add the numbers in front of the ten and
keep the exponent the same.
When multiplying or dividing, multiply or divide the number in front of the ten and add the exponents if
multiplying or subtract the exponents if dividing
Online tutorial: http://www.chem.tamu.edu/class/fyp/mathrev/mr-scnot.html
Example
(9 x 106) / (3 x 102) = (9/3) x 10(6-2) = 3 x 104
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Dimensional Analysis (Unit Conversion)
You should be able to convert any unit into any other unit accurately using a conversion table if given the
conversion factor.
Online tutorials are available:
http://www.chemprofessor.com/dimension_text.htm
http://www.chem.tamu.edu/class/fyp/mathrev/mr-da.html
Prefixes
Prefix
(examples)
Letter
denotation
(examples)
milli
(millimeter, milliliter,
milligram)
m
(mm, mL, mg)
1/1000 =
10-3
cent
(centimeter, centiliter,
centigram)
c
(cm, cL, cg)
1/100 =
10-2
1000
103
kilo
k
(kilometer, kiloliter, kilogram, (km, kL, kg, kb)
kilobyte)
Proportion of Base
Unit
Proportion of Base Unit (in
Scientific Notation)
mega
(megabyte)
M
(Mb)
1,000,000
106
giga
(gigabyte)
G
(Gb)
1,000,000,000
109
tera
(terabyte)
T
(Tb)
1,000,000,000,000
1012
Long Division and Multiplication
You should be able to do these calculations by hand, including values with decimals and scientific notation.
Many students struggle in this area because calculators are not allowed on the AP exam.
Online tutorials are available:
http://www.mathsisfun.com/dividing-decimals.html
http://www.tutors4you.com/tutorialondecimals.htm
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Math Problems
Answer the questions. Use a separate sheet of paper if necessary. Show all work
1. Scientific Notation: What is one hundred million times one hundred thousand? Show your work in
scientific notation. Give the answer in scientific notation and in words.
2. Percentages: A population of endangered mountain gorillas had 324 individuals. If the population
grows by 25% in one year, how many gorillas will there be the next year?
3. Percentages: France caught 150 tons of Bluefin tuna one month and 242 tons the next. By what
percentage did the amount of tuna caught increase by (round to the nearest tenth of a percent)?
4. Rates / Prefixes / Unit Conversion: Electricity costs 7 cents per kilowatt hour. In one month one
home uses 2.1 megawatt hours of electricity. How much will the electric bill be? (be sure to look at
the prefixes chart for the conversion of kilo to mega)
5. Rates: Your car gets 25 miles to the gallon and your friend’s car gets 30 miles to the gallon. You
decide to go on a road trip to South by Southwest in Austin, TX, which is 210 miles away. If gas costs
$3.50 per gallon and you decide to split the gas money, how much money will you save in gas by
driving your friend’s car?
6. Rates: A city contains 1,750 homes and each home uses 240 kWh (kilowatt-hours) per month. How
many kWh does the entire city use each month? If 4 people live in each house, what is the average
per capita energy consumption?
7. Percentages: The concentration of mercury in a water supply changes from 80 ppm (parts per
million) to 63 ppm over a ten-year period. What is the percentage change of the mercury
concentration? Round to the nearest hundredth.
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8. Long Division and Multiplication: Show your work for the following multiplication and division
problems. You can use a calculator to check your work, but I want to see that you understand how to
solve these problems by hand. Just like on the AP exam, no credit is given if you don’t show your
work.
2450 x 7.5
92.5 x 21.3
4.70x10-3 x 3.8
2409 / 43.8
.09 / .0036
5.50x103 / .022
9.
Unit Conversion: AHS’s football field is approximately 53 yards wide and 120 yards long. If one inch
of rain falls on the field, how many cubic feet of rain fell on the field? (Hint: convert all units to feet first)
10.
Rates: The combustion of one gallon of automobile fuel produces about 5 pounds of carbon (in CO2).
Two autos are making a trip of 600 miles. The first auto gets 20 miles per gallon, and the second gets 30
miles per gallon. Approximately how much less carbon (in CO2) will be produced by the second auto on this
trip?
11.
Rates: How many oranges are in a crate if the price of a crate of oranges is $1.60 and the price of
oranges is $0.20 per pound and there are 3 oranges per pound?
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Summer Assignment Overview Checklist
Task
#
Due Date
Task Description
Objective
1
Mandatory Assignment #1 - Letter of
07/08/2016 introduction email sent to
[email protected]
So I can begin to get to know you as a
student.
2
Before the
1st day of
class
Mandatory Assignment #2 – Signing
up for class communication
Students will be signed up and ready to
receive class communications by the first
day of school
3
1st Day of
School
Mandatory Assignment #3 - Get your
supplies for APES
Assemble your supplies for class so we can
get started right away
4
Mandatory Assignment #4 – Get your
08/22/2016 journal ready for Semester ONE of
APES! Have your journal ready
Student’s journal is ready and student is
prepared to engage in interactive learning
processes
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Mandatory Assignment #5 – Summer
Math Assignment. Turn in Math
sheet only. Make sure your name is
08/24/2016 on the document.
To get you to read, evaluate, and relate to
the actual work of a leading scientist. The
math assignment will prepare you for
solving question sets and interpreting data
that is needed in Environmental Science
and on the AP exam.
nd
2 Day of
School
Check off
when
complete
My email address is [email protected] if you have any questions about the summer assignment you can
get in touch with me through email. I may send emails out about this class over the summer. HAVE AN
AWESOME SUMMER!
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