Climate Change and Wildfire
4-day Unit
Target Audience: 9th-12th Grade Students
This unit was designed to introduce 9-12 grade students to the effects of climate change and rising global temperatures on wildfires. We partnered with the USDA Southwest Climate Hub to design an engaging, fun, and scientifically rigorous education unit aligned with Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. This unit is freely available and intended for use by anyone, especially educators of 9-12 grade students. The unit consists of three activities and was designed to be conducted over four days. Each activity can also stand alone however, and the unit need not be completed in its entirety. The curriculum is free to download.
Wildfire: Past and Future
Students build model ecosystems and place them under heat lamps to model climate change. Students can vary the amount of vegetation or water in their ecosystem to investigate the impacts of varying fuel and moisture levels. As a class, set each ecosystem on fire to see how climate change has affected fire risk.
Educator guide (PDF)
Wildfire: Past and Future handout (PDF)
Wildfire: Past and Future presentation (PowerPoint)
Model Description page (PDF)
Instructional Video (link is external) (link)
Wildfire Data Jam
Students analyze data of Very Large Fire Potential in several ecosystem types across western North America. They look for patterns or trends in the data and communicate their findings in a variety of ways.
Educator guide (PDF)
Wildfire Data Jam handout (PDF)
Wildfire Data Jam presentation (PowerPoint)
Dataset page (PDF)
Playing with Fire
Students learn about mitigating and adapting to increased fire risk through a board game. Then they design a community that reduces fire risk through strategies they learned in the game.
Educator guide (PDF)
Playing with Fire presentation (PowerPoint)
Playing with Fire game board (PDF)
Playing with Fire career cards (PDF)
Wildfire hazard cards (PDF)
Playing with Fire game rules handout (PDF)
Instructional Video (link)