PSSC Honors Physics Summer Reading

“Six Easy Pieces” by Richard P. Feynman. ISBN # 0-201-40825-2.

Upon reading “Six Easy Pieces”, you should complete a journal for the book. You will pick 5 passages(sentences or paragraphs) from each chapter in the book. Each passage must be documented. For each passage, you will give your impressions of what you feel the author is discussing. DO NOT just recopy the authors statements.

The journal will count as a 30 point grade in the first marking period of the semester. The due date is the first Friday of the beginning of the semester. 10 points per day will be deducted for late journals.

Honors Advanced Chemistry

The book listed below must be read before the first class in the course.  You only need to read the following chapters listed for the book.

Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold by Tom Schatzman
IBSN: 0618082395
Chapters 1,3,4,8,9,10,11,12,13

Earth and Space Science—Honors Requirements

Comet by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan ISBN 345-41222-2 Explore the origin, nature and future of comets, including exotic myths and portents.  Learn how comets spurred great discoveries in science and raise intriguing questions. Part I:    The Nature of Comets Part II:   Origins and Facts of Comets Part III:  Comets and the Future

JOURNAL (~ 20 points):  Due the first day of class.
Make journal entries for each chapter.  Include definitions of key vocabulary terms and list important concepts, such as locations and dates.  

TEST (~ 30 points):  Within the first week of class. 
Basic terms: (What is it?  What is the origin of the word?)
Comet, meteor, meteorite, asteroid, meteor showers
Who’s Who: (Books, laws, philosophy “sun– or earth-centered”)
Aristotle, Halley, Hooke, Kepler, Kant, Newton
Comet Anatomy:  Diagram and explain.
Comet Path:  Creation of tails, relationship to the sun.
Halley’s Comet:  Facts, Visits, Discoverer
Oort Cloud:  Where is it?  What is it?
Space Dust:  What is it?  What is its impact on Earth?
Major Extinctions:  How often?  Role of comets.  Future.

Outside Reading for Honors Genetics

The book listed below must be read and the assignment completed before the first day of class in the course.

Genome  by Matt Ridley
ISBN: 0-06-093290-2

Assignment:

Provide the following for each of the listed chapters:

• Word-processed (typed) journal
• Clearly label each chapter
• Include a summary of the author’s ideas and opinions
• Record your thought, opinions, personal experiences/reflections of the material contained in each chapter
• You may also include comments on the validity or accuracy of the content presented.

You are responsible for the following chapters:

• 1  Life
• 5  Environment
• 6  Intelligence
• X and Y Conflict
• 9  Disease
• 11  Personality
• 14  Immortality
• 15  Sex
• 17  Death
• 20  Politics
• 21  Eugenics
• 22  Free Will

In addition to the journal there will be a quiz on the reading.

Honors Biology
Independent Reading Assignment

Required Book:
The Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas

Directions:
You will not be writing a journal of what you have read.  Instead, you will read the chapters listed and do the assignment for each of those chapters.  Some chapter assignments may require you to seek information from other sources.  You may write the assignments in a journal OR type them and staple them together.  They are due the first day of class.  This assignment is worth 50 points.

Assignments:

1. “The Lives of a Cell,” page 3, and “Organelles as Organisms,” page  69.  Write a few paragraphs in which you explore and explain the following topics.

• The role of DNA in cells
• The role of mitochondria in cells
• The value of mtDNA
• The connection between the use of mtDNA and the World Trade Center Disaster.
• The Endosymbiont Hypothesis. 

2. “The Music of This Sphere,” page 20.  Read the passage and write about the following:

• List five different ways that organisms make sounds.
• Explain the specific purpose of each of those sounds.

3. “The Technology of Medicine,” page 31.  Read the passage and write about the following:

• Briefly describe each of the three levels of technology in medicine
• Describe a technological advancement in medicine that has been made in the past five years.

4. “The long Habit,” page 96.  Read the passage and do the following:

• Explain how the author views the actual process of death
• Discuss your views of death and dying.  Use your personal experiences concerning the loss of a relative, friend, or even a pet.

5. “The MBL,” page 58.  Read the passage and do the following:

• Describe why the author feels that the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hole is a special place.
• Describe a discovery that has been made at this laboratory in the last five years.

6. “Germs,” page 75.  Read the passage and do the following:

• Summarize the author’s ideas about germs
• Explain why there has been an increase in antibiotic resistant bacteria in recent years.

7. “Natural Man,” page 103.  In this essay, the author expresses two opposing views.  Choose one of the views expressed below and support your choice by using examples of man’s relationship with the biosphere today:

• “We have become …….nature itself.  We have grown into everywhere, spreading like a new growth over the entire surface, touching and affecting every other kind of life, incorporating ourselves.  The earth being eutrophied by us.”
• “Or is it really this way”  It could be, you know, just the other way around.  Perhaps we are the invaded ones, the subjugated, used.”

8. “The Iks,” page 107.  Read the passage and do the following”

• Describe what happened to the Iks.
• Discuss the author’s views comparing the Iks to cities and nations.

9. “The World’s Biggest Membrane,” page 145.  Read the passage and do the following:

• Explain several ways in which the evolution of photosynthesis has mad the earth and the life on it as it is today.
• Speculate as to what would happen if photosynthesis would decrease.

Honors Biology
Independent Reading Assignment
Assessment Form

Book:  How to Think Like Einstein by Scott Thorpe
ISBN: 1-57071-585-8

As you read this book you will keep a journal organized on a chapter basis of the author’s main ideas and opinions.   Look for scientific principles and elements of the scientific method in each chapter.  Your journal entries should reflect the accuracy and/or validity of the information presented.

During the first week of the course you will be taking a test on the reading assignment.  The test will include multiple choice and short answer questions.  It will be equal in point value to other standard course tests. Copies of the book are reserved in the RIC and can be borrowed during the summer.

Honors Anatomy and Physiology
Independent Reading Assignment
Miss Booth

Required Book:
The Mysteries Within by Sherwin B. Nuland.

Directions:
For each chapter that you read, you will write a minimum of a ½ page essay on it.  This essay is to consist of a summary of the chapter, as well as your personal opinion of what the author has portrayed.  In addition to this one page summary, you are to include a list of 10 anatomical or physiological vocabulary terms and you must define them.  This assignment is due the first day of class.  It is worth 50 points and WILL NOT be accepted late.

Honors Microbiology & Biotechnology
Independent Reading Assignment

Required Book:
Choose one of the following book options:

1. Biography of a Germ by Arno Karlen
1. This book is available through Whitehall High School.
2. Tells the story of Borrelia Burgdorferi, the germ that causes Lyme Disease, from the germ’s perspective.

2. The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
1. This book is not available through Whitehall High School. If you are interested in reading this book, you will have to obtain a copy of it on your own.
2. Tells a story of a virus (Ebola) that kills nine out of ten of its victims so quickly and gruesomely that even biohazard experts are terrified.  It is airborne, extremely contagious, and it is about to burn through the suburbs of a major American city.  Is there any way to stop it?

3. The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston
1. This book is not available through Whitehall High School. If you are interested in reading this book, you will have to obtain a copy of it on your own.
2. Tells a story of bioterrorism.  Smallpox was eliminated from the planet in 1979 and the only place on earth it is now found is in two high-security freezers.  But illegal stocks of the virus may be possessed by Iraq and North Korea in secret labs.  They are trying to genetically engineer a “superpox” virus that is resistant to vaccines.  Can the scientists of our national defense develop a drug that will take on smallpox and win?

Directions:
For each chapter that you read, you will write a minimum of a 1-page essay on it.  You are to construct your essays in MLA format (which is double-spaced).  The one page essay will consist of a summary of the chapter, as well as your personal opinion of what the author has portrayed.

This assignment is due the first day of class.  It is worth 50 points and will not be accepted late.