AP Environmental Science

2017-2018
Summer Assignments

First, thank you for choosing to do the AP Environmental Science course with me. I am looking
forward to working with a motivated and successful group, all of whom should be well able to
take the AP exam in May next year.

If you are interested in environmental activities and in Environmental Science as a study, and if
you are willing to devote energy and time to the course, you will be very successful. Interest and
a desire to better understand the environment and our connections to it are clearly the two most
important prerequisites for this course. Another requirement is that you fully commit yourself
to meeting expectations of the course - reading, assignments, labs, class work, etc. The time we
have to prepare for AP Environmental Science is short.

Although your primary summer assignments must be to relax and enjoy the summer, I am
asking you to get to work on what should be an easy and enjoyable preparation for this course.
My intention is to get you to focus on some of the ideas we will cover during the next school
year.

E-mail me if you have questions: josborne@liceocampoverde.edu.ec. All of these assignments,

as well as your textbook link and other course information are posted on your Blog:
https://2bguapeslcv.wordpress.com/. You should register and sign up to the Blog, becoming a
follower. I will know when you do that, that you have received these Summer assignments.

1. Your very first assignment at the start of next school year will be to make a poster concept
map which links the 7 concepts we will study in Environmental Science. These topics, themes
or concepts are:
1. Earth's Systems and Resources
2. The Living World
3. Population
4. Land and Water Use
5. Energy Resources and Consumption
6. Pollution
7. Global change
You already know what is meant by a concept map. The content will be taken from the
textbook, which is linked on the Blog.

During this Summer vacation you could start on this by looking very briefly through the
textbook, to find out what the book and the course are all about, as well as to specifically find
the information you need. Maybe make a few notes to prepare yourself.

The concept map will have a central concept - ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE. Around this
will be located the 7 sub-concepts, each with a 4 or 5 line summary about what is its content and
focus.

3. Try to watch these 4 video films. They are all available on YouTube:
I. The Greening of Eritrea (17 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CvRy97TJVE&list=PLCru93WgymzWkBAbD1
M36XbokuD8Ep5CG
 II. Baraka. (1hr 37mins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btds6k0XlEQ
III. Affluenza / Escape from Affluenza (1hr 48mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtveS1kZqYA
IV. Empty oceans, empty nets (56 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VbcfQfmwPw

'The Greening of Eritrea' is obligatory. We will analyse and review the film when we
begin work next term.
'Baraka' is just a stunning film. If you enjoy it, then you are ready for the APES course!
'Affluenza / Escape from Affluenza' is long but carries a strong message for us all.
'Empty oceans, empty nets' discusses one of the more serious environmental issues
facing us today.

Get hold of a book to read. There are so many books with an environmental focus or with a
strong environmental message. Choose one or more from this list. Do you have another choice?
1. Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion by Alan Burdick
2. Omnivores Dilemma: A Natural History of 4 Meals by Michael Pollan
3. Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen
4. Exposed: Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and Whats at Stake for American
Power by Marc Schapiro
5. Plastic: A Toxic Love Affair by Susan Freinkel
6. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
7. Song for the Blue Ocean: Encounters Along the Worlds Coasts and Beneath the Sea by
Carl Safina
8. Emerald Cities: Urban Sustainability and Economic Development by J. Fitzgerald
9. Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to
Sustainability by David Owen
10. Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash by E. Humes
11. Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner
12. Over a Barrel: The Costs of US Foreign Oil Dependence by J. Duffield
13. Lost Mountain: A Year in the Vanishing Wilderness-Radical Strip Mining and Devastation
of Appalachia by E. Reece
14. A Spring without Bees: How Colony Collapse Disorder has Endangered our Food Supply
by M. Shaker
15. "Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World" by Mark Kurlansky
16. "Toms River: a Story of Science and Salvation" by Dan Fagin
17. "World On the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse" by Lester
Brown
18. "The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the
World" by Russell Gold
19. "Tangled Roots: The Appalachian Trail and American Environmental Politics" by Sarah
Mittlefehldt
20. "Grass, Soil, Hope: A Journey Through Carbon Country" by Courtney White
21. "Chasing Water: a Guide for Moving from Scarcity to Sustainability" by Brian Richter
22. "The World According to Monsanto" by Marie-Monique Robin
23. "Where the Wild Things Were" by William Stolzenburg
24. "The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water" by Charles Fishman
25. "Eco-Scam: The False Prophets of Ecological Apocalypse" by Ronald Bailey
26. "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
27. "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn
Read this case study: http://www.amusingplanet.com/2015/06/nauru-island-country-destroyed-
by.html
Despite the fact that it appears on a web page called "Amusing Planet", this story is far from
amusing. This sort of deliberate or thoughtless exploitation is behind most of the world's
environmental problems.

John Osborne
July 2017