Ecological Management Issues: Finding a Curricular Fit

"Sorry, my district has a set curriculum."
"I catch enough heat without trying to teach about fire!"
"I just don't feel comfortable adding new material when I usually can't even cover the required topics."
"Project 2061 said, 'The present curriculum is overstuffed.' Now you want me to add something else?!"

Teachers encountering a new set of teaching materials, even when they relate to important issues or valuable skills, may not immediately see them as opportunities. The constraints of formal education are certainly real, and frequent public demands for a certain kind of accountability (primarily measured by increased test scores) weigh heavily in the professional choices that must be made about what is to happen in the classroom.

How can a topic as important as wildland fire ecology find its way into a crowded, overburdened, and seemingly inflexible school curriculum? The problem may not be with the new topic but with the way teachers think about the curriculum. Earth Systems Education (ESE) is an approach that K–16 educators in many countries are finding valuable in rethinking what should happen in science teaching and learning.

ESE was conceived by teachers, scientists, and science educators who believed that the science curriculum could be better related to students' lives if it were to focus on their surroundings, on the Earth itself, just as science was in its beginnings. How natural processes work, how people affect Earth, what things fit together and how, why we can't really separate biology from chemistry from oceanography, and so on–these are the exciting ways of science that few encounter in traditional classrooms. A curriculum focused on Earth offers the possibility of not only teaching sound interdisciplinary science but also making that science relevant enough to be exciting and useful.

To counter the "overstuffed" nature of the curriculum, ESE is based on seven Understandings (ESUs) about what a person completing a good science course, unit, or program of studies should recognize. They are listed here in summary form, however the ESE web site at http://earthsys.ag.ohio-state.edu/framework.html has expansions with examples.

Framework of Understandings for Earth Systems Education

1. Earth is unique, a planet of rare beauty and great value.
2. Human activities, collective and individual, conscious and inadvertent, affect planet Earth.
3. The development of scientific thinking and technology increases our ability to understand and utilize Earth and space.
4. The Earth system is composed of interacting subsystems of water, rock, ice, air, and life.
5. Planet Earth is more than 4 billion years old and its subsystems are continually evolving.
6. Earth is a small subsystem of a solar system within the vast and ancient universe.
7. There are many people with careers that involve study of Earth's origin, processes, and evolution.

Teachers who are considering use of new curriculum materials, such as those in wildland fire ecology, should first examine the curriculum they presently teach. Is it clear from the course materials that these Understandings could come from them? Does that really happen? How often does the work of a day consist of worksheets requiring facts, drawn from books or lectures, as answers? Often a text-based science course will include good representation of science processes (ESU #3) in one discipline, but does it relate those processes to real things happening in the students' environment (ESU #4) or to how things have changed over time (ESU #5)? Could a student complete a topic in the textbook without knowing how people have explored and used the science or why people need to know it (ESU #2 and #7)? How many students emerge from the curriculum with an appreciation for the wonders and the value of Earth, and a recognition of why those attributes are important enough to express and protect (ESU #1)?

Few existing curricula meet the seven simple expectations of Earth Systems Education, so many teachers in the United States and abroad are taking the steps needed to enhance their teaching with specific attention to the Understandings. They do not see this as more work; on the contrary, making certain that seven things happen is much more manageable than dealing with the large numbers of facts required for most final examinations. They make a decision not to reject their current curriculum but to enhance it with relevant examples and rich, lasting learnings. Research shows that along the way, ESE can enhance science skills just as the modern curriculum requires.

To determine whether wildland fire ecology has utility for the classroom, examine the materials to determine how they could address the Earth Systems Understandings. A key consideration is the "systems" approach to thinking that is stated in ESU #4. Fire ecology clearly is a systemic phenomenon, affecting or affected by atmospheric composition and events, moisture, features of the land, and living things. After the fire, the water, land, ice, air, and life work to rebuild the ecosystem in a renewed form. The human environment that is frequently related to or influenced by fire ecology (ESU #2) serves as a second system that substantially overlaps the more natural system. Managers can't deal with just one factor in either system and expect to understand or manage the fire and its work.

Managing wildland fire is a set of jobs (ESU #7), not just in science but also in policy, management, economics, communication, and many other fields. People in these fields are aware of the value of fire and its awesome power to reshape the environment (ESU #1). They are also alert to the economic aspects of fire ecology, and to the way fire affects people's aesthetic view of an area. It takes special communication skills to help people deal with an initial sense of loss, and to come to an understanding of the importance of fire in landscape renewal. While aesthetic aspects don't often enter a science curriculum or appear on a proficiency test, it is the feelings of beauty and value people have about Earth that make them strive to use resources wisely.

The science curriculum does include a focus on change over time, and fire is historically and currently a contributor to that (ESU #5). By having students analyze short-term versus long-term change, we complement their understanding of how Earth has come to have its present biological and physical composition, and how humans can have positive or negative roles in future change (ESU #2).

How can wildland fire ecology fit ESU #6? Think of the Earth as a planet. Solar energy is often a neglected aspect of recovery of wildlands after fire, a required component for regrowth. Our planetary temperature is related to how much incoming solar energy is absorbed, reflected, or reradiated. If the sun's energy is blocked by thick smoke over large areas, such as from the fires in Indonesia in 1998, air quality is affected and over time there can be a cooling effect.

Finally, a study of fire ecology and management can provide a rich look at how science processes and technology work (ESU #3). From the chemistry of combustion to the succession of species to the tools for managing fire, the story is one that can enrich science learning with relevant information. An ancillary benefit from the study is one of fostering critical thinking, a key science process that traditional curricula may not address. Decisions are made not only on multiple choice tests but in everyday consideration of larger choices: voting, selection of consumer products, information gathering, health risks, all involve choices that require critical thinking.

Consider the outcomes for teaching people who will be voters in the new century. If the goals of Earth Systems Education are appropriate for the curriculum in the context of the community, wildland fire ecology will fit. ESE encourages thinking about what is really important in science, and it imparts a flexibility to include new ideas with the confidence that educators at many levels in many countries are moving in the direction that represents progress in curriculum restructure.

For more information visit the Bibliography section of the ESE web site, or contact Earth Systems Education Program, School of Natural Resources, The Ohio State University, 2021 Coffey Rd., Columbus, OH 43210.

Author: Rosanne Fortner