- Hamburg Area High School
- AP Environmental
- Summer Work
Bucheit, Cheryl
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Summer Work
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The following summer assignments are due: Friday, August 26, 2016
APES Summer Assignments
Assignment #1. Experience the Natural World
Visit a natural outdoor area, go for a walk, and make some observations. Please go beyond your backyard. Here are some nearby places you could visit (of course you are welcome to go to others farther away):
- Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, Pinnacle/Pulpit Rock
- Kernsville Dam, Bartram Trail
- State Game Lands
- Blue Marsh Recreation Area
- State Parks (Tuscarora, French Creek, Locus Lake, Beltzville, Nolde)
On your walk, please do and then submit the following:
- Record the time, date, location, approximate duration of your outing, and whether you went
alone or with a friend(s)
- Record brief observations of the plants and animals, the geology/topography of the area, the
type of path you are walking on (grass, sand, rock, etc.). Specific details are NOT
necessary (for example, “I saw two black turtles sunning themselves on a log…”). This
should be one paragraph.
- Find a quite spot to sit for at least five minutes. Close your eyes and listen to the sounds around
you. What sounds are natural? Are there human made sounds? If so, what are they? Write a reflection of this experience. This should be one paragraph.
- Respond to the following in a brief paragraph:
Is this natural area really “natural”? Explain. How do you think it appeared 25 years
ago, 200 years ago, and 20,000 years ago?
Assignment #2: Prerequisite Knowledge
Complete the prerequisite knowledge activity below to brush up on terms and skills that you should already know from other science/math classes.
Assignment #3: Environmental Law Review
Complete the attached Environmental Law Review Activity to learn more about the laws governing the topics that we will be covering during the APES course.
Assignment #4: Article and Questions
Read the essay “Tragedy of the Commons” by Garrett Hardin. Here is a link:
http://www.garretthardinsociety.org/articles/art_tragedy_of_the_commons.html
When you have completed the reading, please respond to the following in complete sentences:
a. What is Garrett Hardin’s central idea in this essay?
b. Do you personally agree with Hardin’s central idea?
c. Is the “Tragedy of the Commons” unavoidable?
d. Identify one “commons” in your own life (at school, home, work) and explain how it is (or is not) being managed wisely to avoid the situation described in the essay.
Assignment #5: Notes for the first 3 chapters.
To cover the information that you will need for the AP exam, we need go over 20 chapters in your textbook. That is one chapter every 7 days. You will be taking most of the notes for the chapters yourself as homework with guided questions that I will provide for each chapter. I will be giving you section quizzes that you can use your notes to help you answer. To use the notes for the quizzes, your notes must be HANDWRITTEN - not typed.
Cornell University has a method for taking notes that it recommends to its students. I have provided the format and an example for the part of the first chapter. If you wish to use this method, you may. If not, you may handwrite the notes in whatever format you choose.
The note taking questions for the first three chapters of your book can be found on this website under the menu "Chapter Note Taking Questions". These notes are due with the rest of the summer work. If you wish to work ahead, I have the note taking questions for all of the chapters that we will cover posted on my teacher website on the school district webpage under AP Environmental – select “Chapter Note Taking Questions” from the menu on the left. These notes will be the bulk of your homework during the year. By doing more than the first three chapters that I am requiring over the summer, you will be lightening your work load during the upcoming school year.
