FireWorks Educational Program
FireWorks is an educational program about the science of wildland fire, designed for students in grades 1-12. The program consists of a curriculum and a trunk of materials, including laboratory equipment, specimens, and kits of specialized materials for teachers.
FireWorks provides students with interactive, hands-on materials to study wildland fire. It is highly interdisciplinary and students learn about properties of matter, chemical and physical processes, ecosystem fluctuations and cycles, habitat and survival, and human interactions with ecosystems. Students using FireWorks ask questions, gather information, analyze and interpret it, and communicate their discoveries.
Full curricula, as well as information on how to borrow FireWorks trunks, are available on the FireWorks website.
Principal Investigator: Ilana Abrahamson
Online Resources
People
-
Person
Ilana Abrahamson
Supervisory Ecologisthttps://research.fs.usda.gov/about/people/ilana.l.abrahamson -
Person
Courtney A. Johnson
FEIS & FireWorks Supporthttps://research.fs.usda.gov/about/people/courtney.johnson2
Publications
- Jane Kapler Smith, Nancy E. McMurray. 2000. FireWorks curriculum featuring ponderosa, lodgepole, and whitebark pine forests
- Linda R. Thomas, James A. Walsh, Jane Kapler Smith. 2000. Behavioral and cognitive evaluation of FireWorks education trunk
- Tamara M. Parkinson, Jo Ellen Force, Jane Kapler Smith. 2003. Hands-on learning: Its effectiveness in teaching the public about wildland fire
- Jane Kapler Smith, Nancy E. McMurray. 2004. FireWorks educational program and its effectiveness