Description

Lesson Overview: Students apply their knowledge about fire regimes (low-, mixed-, and stand-replacement) to 3 forest types that occur from the northern Rocky Mountains to the North Cascades - forests historically dominated by ponderosa, lodgepole, and whitebark pine. Students read a technical article about 1 of these forest types and summarize it for a high -school science blog.

Lesson Goals: Students can recognize the most prevalent fire regime for each of 3 forest community types that occur from the northern Rocky Mountains to the North Cascades. They determine whether a fire regime has changed over the past century and explain why changes in fire regimes matter.

Objectives:

• Students can interpret a map and a table of data on historical fire regimes.
• Students can understand a 1-page technical article on a fire regime.
• Students can write a concise blog that summarizes information on a fire regime, how it has changed over the past century, and why that matters.
• Students can identify strengths and weaknesses in blogs written by other students.