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Mr. Stephansky
AP Biology
Summer Assignment
Biological Scavenger Hunt based on work by Todd Ryan
Let us start by repeating information that you have already heard a dozen times. This year-long college
course that you have selected to take requires a great deal of reading and writing. During the year, you will
be expected to put as much time into it as you would in a college environment (about 3 to 5 hours a week).
There will be days when the information is exciting and interesting and there will be days when it is not.
Days when you will gladly haul the 20 lb. book home, and days when you wish that you could throw it into
the Atlantic for some poor child in Europe to enjoy.
This summer assignment has been designed for five purposes:
 to help you distinguish between “carrots and parrots”
 to enlarge your vocabulary by familiarizing you with some terms that we will be using in class.
 to introduce you to major concepts found in AP Biology through various methods of learning.
 to have you earn a strong grade to help you begin the first nine weeks.
 to decrease the amount of new material that you will have to learn during the school year.
You are to use the internet and any other references that you can find.
No textbook is being assigned for this summer assignment.
The Natural History Collection. (The scavenger hunt)
This assignment will send you out of doors to do field work, i.e. “Old-fashioned” Biology. You are to
“collect” some of the biological items on the following list during the summer. Your grade will be
the point value of the items you collect. Although this assignment is a 100 point assignment, you
would be better off collecting MORE than 100 points worth of things to allow for some things not
meeting my requirements. To prove that you’ve seen the items, you must submit either;
 A photograph of the object
 A hand-drawn image of the object in its found location
 A newspaper or magazine article that has that object as its primary subject (limited to 5
submissions maximum)
 An internet article/image of the organism (limited to 5 submissions maximum)
Every organism submitted must be labeled with the properly-formatted scientific name and the
location of the organism. For example, a dog in your neighbor’s yard would be labeled as Canis
familiaris; 600 Franklin St. Whitman, MA. Newspaper and magazine articles must include a correct
citation for the article and the article must have been written during the summer (June – August,
2009).
DO’S and DON’TS:
 Do take a camera and a small notebook with you as you collect. Remember to record the original colors and
markings immediately as they may not photograph as well as you had hoped. When photographing trees, take
one shot of the entire tree, one of its bark and another of the leaves or needles. This information will be required
as part of your collection.
 Do be sure to have organisms that are different in type in the general collection-ex: only one kind of
grasshopper, one shelf fungus. Each artifact type should be different in nature (only one footprint and one shell;
not 2 shell types or 2 animals).
 There is no need to damage or harm anything in this activity. Take nothing but the picture; leave nothing but
your footprint.
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DON’T WAIT too long to begin
Do collect more than you need- sometimes you have something that is really difficult clearly identify; backup
samples are good.
Do remember to record the sort of habitat (the side of road, in a marsh, a shaded woods, GPS location, etc)
where your sample was found- this is part of your information to include in the fieldbook and will help you in
using the classification guides.
DON’T handle bird nests; they can be full of parasites and many birds return to their nest each year.
DO have the pictures clear enough so that identification is easily made.
DO take your own pictures. No swapping of shots or taking them from a book or the internet (except where
noted); include a time and date stamp on the picture if possible.
The submitted portfolio/fieldbook can be in a booklet form or as a PowerPoint presentation. This
project must be submitted by Friday, September 4th, 2009.
Specimen List: Below are the items you are to “collect”. An individual organism can only be used
once. Humans are acceptable for one category only. You may use internet-based images for no
more than 5 of these items.
LOCAL ORGANISMS: PROGRESSIVE POINT VALUES (maximum 5 sets)
The first organism in each category counts 1 pt, the second different type of organism is 2 additional
pts (total 1 + 2 = 3), the third is 3 (6 pts total), etc. up to a total of 5 organisms in the category. Every
organism/example must be native to Massachusetts.
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Different Biomes (only three must be within MA)
Different types of carbohydrates
Distinguishing characteristics between monocots and dicots
Different classes of proteins
Evidence of alleles for the same trait
Organisms in different animal phyla
Organisms in different kingdoms
Organisms in different plant divisions
Organisms in same class but different orders
Organisms in same genus but with different species
Organisms in same order but different family
Organisms on different levels of the same food chain. These do not need to be native to
Massachusetts (you may have up to two examples of each category; submitting more than two
will not add any additional points).
INDIVIDUAL ITEMS
A nonvascular plant
Tropism
Analogous structures
Altruistic Behavior
An organism that cannot be classified
according to the “biological” species
concept
o Amphibian
o Angiosperm
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Animal larva or pupa
Any scientific experiment
Asexual reproduction
Bilaterally symmetrical organism
Biogeochemical cycle
Bryophyte
Pterophyte
C3 and either c4 or cam organisms
Commensalism
o
o
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o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
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Crustacean
Detritovore
Dominant vs recessive phenotypes
Email sent to [email protected]
with subject “2009 AP Biology” and then
your first and last name (valid 1x only)
Energy transfers
Evidence of evolution
Example of a plant adaptation
Example of an animal adaptation
Example of reproductive isolation
Examples of palmate, pinnate and parallel
venation patterns
Genetic variation within a population
Homeostasis of an organism
Homologous structures
Instinctual behavior
Interaction between science and
technology
Introduced species
Lepidopteran
Mating behavior
Mollusk
Mutualism
Organism’s home
Parasitism
Plant using either wind or water for seed
dispersal
Plant using animals for seed dispersal
Passeriform
Population
Predation
Radially symmetrical individual
Redox reaction
Reproductive structures of a plant or
fungus
Seed dispersal by animals
Seed dispersal by wind or water
Sporophyte and gametophyte generations
of the same plant
Street/road sign with famous biologist’s
last name (1 per name)
Succession
Territorial behavior
Taxis
o Turgid versus flaccid organism
o Vestigial structure in an animal
o Two different life stages of the same
organism (must be morphologically
distinct; i.e., caterpillar – butterfly or
tadpole – frog)
o Two different storage polysaccharides
o rhizome
o saprophyte
o spicule from PORIFERA
o spore
o sporophyte
o stem - woody
o thorn of a plant
o vitamin C - natural source
o xerophyte
o xylem
o flower with a superior ovary
o hairy leaf
o keratin
o meristem area
o modified root of a plant
o microspore
o monocot plant with flower and leaf
o mycelium
o mycorrhizae
o abscisic acid producing area of a plant
o actin
o beta carotene
o bivalve shell
o C 4 plant
o cartilage
o CHLOROPHYTA
o coelomate
o drupe
o epithelial tissue
o myosin
o OLIGOCHAETA
o parenchyma cells
o pine cone-female
o poikilotherm
o pollen
o prokaryote
o protein that regulates
o radial symmetry