FireWorks Generic Curriculum

This version of FireWorks consists of activities that can be used anywhere that wildland fires burn. Activities in the table below that have blue hyperlinks do not reference specific regions or ecology and can be used anywhere (i.e., ‘generic activities’). Activities that have black font (no hyperlinks) reference specific regions and ecology and may require modification to fit your local ecology.

To modify the FireWorks program for specific regions, we recommend using the generic activities and modifying the non-generic activities from the Northern Rocky Mountain and North Cascades curricula (listed in the table below) or similar activities from the Sierra Nevada curricula. Some of the non-generic activities contain only brief references to local ecology (e.g., M05 and M06) and require minimal modification; whereas, other activities are heavily based on local ecology and require substantial modification (e.g., E08-2, E10, M14, H15).

If you are adapting the curricula to fit your region, one of the first steps is to decide which plants, animals, and fungi to include and to create a FireWorks Encyclopedia similar to the version for the Northern Rocky Mountains and North Cascades or the Sierra Nevada. Another important step is to figure out how to teach about fire history. It is best to locate a published study for which you can obtain original data and photograph original specimens (increment cores, fire-scarred cross sections, or other materials).

If you would like advice about adapting individual activities or the entire curricula, or if you would like to obtain original files so you can edit them, please feel free to contact us!

For more information about these curricula and educational standards, please see the Introduction (from the Northern Rocky Mountains and North Cascades). To access individual activities, select the links in the table below.