Rocky Mountain Research Station

Title: FireWorks curriculum featuring ponderosa, lodgepole, and whitebark pine forests

Author: Smith, Jane Kapler; McMurray, Nancy E.

Date: 2000

Source: Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-65. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 270 p.

Station ID: GTR-RMRS-065

Description: FireWorks is an educational program for students in grades 1-10. The program consists of the curriculum in this report and a trunk of laboratory materials, specimens, and reference materials. It provides interactive, hands-on activities for studying fire ecology, fire behavior, and the influences of people on three fire-dependent forest types - Pinus ponderosa (ponderosa pine), Pinus contorta var. latifolia (interior lodgepole pine), and Pinus albicaulis (whitebark pine). Wildland fire provides a rich context for education because it promotes understanding and integration of numerous concepts: properties of matter, ecosystem fluctuations and cycles, plant and animal habitat and survival, and human interactions with ecosystems. The curriculum links each activity to national and local educational standards; research has shown it increases student understanding of wildland fire. FireWorks is most appropriate for students in locations where the three featured tree species occur, and it may serve as a prototype for wildland fire education in other geographic areas.

Keywords: fire ecology, fire behavior, education, habitat, lodgepole pine, management, ponderosa pine, succession, whitebark pine, wildlife

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Citation

Smith, Jane Kapler; McMurray, Nancy E.  2000.  FireWorks curriculum featuring ponderosa, lodgepole, and whitebark pine forests.   Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-65. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 270 p..