Students investigate the phenomenon of wildfire intensity and what could cause varying intensity. Students identify and measure the forest fuels at their forest site and analyze this data to determine a fire’s behavior. Understanding fire behavior will help students evaluate the risk of fire and its intensity in their local forested landscapes and broader community, while learning how forest management can lower this risk.
Find detailed protocols and lists of tools for Modules 2-4 on the Field Protocols page.
Utilize grade-specific notebooks throughout the modules using the link.
Collect and analyze forest ecology data related to fire risk
Describe several human activities that can protect forest environments and communities
Communicate their forest’s fire risk and recommended forest management activities to a Community Partner (and potentially other audiences)
Acknowledges prior experiences around forest fires.
Students are introduced to a fire behavior phenomena and their role as community scientists in the Our Forests program.
Students prepare to measure tree density with diameter at breast height (DBH) tapes and explain the role of tree density in fire behavior.
Students collect data on tree density and identify trees in their Our Forest plots and begin to understand what tree density means for fire behavior.
Students analyze their tree density data set and build their understanding about how fire behaves at their forest site by forming evidence-based claims.
Students will use historical and present-day data from forests in Yosemite to define high severity fire, analyze and interpret data, and evaluate claims about cause and effect.
Students identify different forest fuels and learn to measure a specific type called dead, downed, woody debris (DDWD).
Students collect data on DDWD in their Our Forest plots and begin to understand what forest fuels means for fire behavior.
Students will analyze their DDWD data in the classroom and build their understanding about how fire behaves. They will supplement their analysis with information about prescribed fires, a forest management technique that helps reduce the amount of fuels on the forest floor.
Students revisit their forest experiences, including their observations and questions to send to their community partner as a class.
Students prepare to measure percent cover of ladder fuels and think about what forest management will mean for their forest site.
Students collect data on a type of the coverage of shrubs and the canopy layer, and culminate their forest experiences with a share-out about their plot.
Students will analyze their ladder fuel data in the classroom and build their understanding about how fire behaves and the potential for high intensity catastrophic fire at their forest site. Students will supplement their analysis with information about hand thinning, a forest management technique that helps reduce the amount of fuels on the forest floor.
Students design and create a meaningful presentation that can be in multiple or different formats for a variety of audiences.