Rocky Mountain Research Station

Title: Behavioral and cognitive evaluation of FireWorks education trunk

Author: Thomas, Linda R.; Walsh, James A.; Smith, Jane Kapler

Date: 2000

Source: In: Smith, Helen Y., ed. 2000. The Bitterroot Ecosystem Management Research Project: What we have learned: symposium proceedings; 1999 May 18-20; Missoula, MT. Proc. RMRS-P-17. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 71-73

Station ID: P-RMRS-017

Description: This study assessed the effectiveness of FireWorks, an educational trunk about wildland fire, in increasing student understanding, enabling students to apply classroom learning in a field setting, and improving the learning environment. Students who were in classrooms using the FireWorks educational trunk demonstrated more knowledge in both classroom and field-based tests than did students in comparison groups. Students using FireWorks were more interested and engaged in learning than students in comparison classrooms. FireWorks students rated their classrooms as being more orderly and better organized, and rated their teachers as more innovative, creative, and interested in student input than did students in comparison groups. Teachers of FireWorks were less likely to be interrupted to reprimand students than were teachers of comparison classrooms.

Keywords: ecosystem management, forest succession, social sciences, FireWorks education trunk, wildland fire

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Citation

Thomas, Linda R.; Walsh, James A.; Smith, Jane Kapler  2000.  Behavioral and cognitive evaluation of FireWorks education trunk.   In: Smith, Helen Y., ed. 2000. The Bitterroot Ecosystem Management Research Project: What we have learned: symposium proceedings; 1999 May 18-20; Missoula, MT. Proc. RMRS-P-17. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 71-73.