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USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Northern Region
Contact:
Jane Kaplee Smith or Nancy McMurray
Intermountain Fire Sciences Laboratory
P.O. Box 8089
Missoula, Montana 59807
Phone: (406) 329-4803 or 4805
Grade levels: K through 10
This USDA Forest Service curriculum, the benchmark in current wildland fire materials, is accompanied by a "trunk" of materials to be used in the activities. The integrated activities focus on the Ponderosa, Lodgepole, and Whitebark Pine forests. They have inspired the creation of regional curricula by other agencies across the country. Currently the trunks are lent to educators on an as-needed basis, and are circulated primarily in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The content focuses on five fire-related themes: the physical science of wildland fire behavior, characteristics that enable plant and animal populations to survive fire, the "fire history" of forests, change in forest communities over time, and people's influences on forests and wildland fire. Props in the trunk include a slide presentation as well as many background readings and supplies for experiments. Many of the activities involve burning in the classroom to investigate combustion processes and fire effects. There is a section on safety considerations in burning indoors. After the numerous classroom and lab activities, an outline for a field scavenger hunt is provided. This curriculum is drawn from principles outlined by the American Association for the Advancement of Science's benchmarks for science literacy and the national science education standards. Opportunities for extension and enrichment activities are outlined at the end of each section as are occasional tips for integrating the fire curriculum into the regular classroom curriculum. Recent research on the use of the FireWorks program with 7th graders demonstrates positive outcomes in the students' understanding of wildland fire, their ability to transfer knowledge from the field to the classroom, and their attitudes toward their classrooms and teachers (Smith et al., in press).