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Fire Wars
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Classroom Activities
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Objective
To extrapolate information and further questions for investigation
from fire season statistics.
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copy of "Fire Season Statistics" student handout (PDF
or
HTML)
- calculator
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Having information about previous fire seasons can help land
managers look for areas they may need to monitor in coming
years. In this activity, students will look at data regarding
wildland fire totals for the year 2000 as reported by the
National Interagency Fire Center.
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Organize students into groups and provide each group with a copy
of the "Fire Season Statistics" student handouts and a
calculator.
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Have each group discuss the data as it is currently presented.
What information is conveyed? What general conclusions can
students draw? What, if any, patterns do they see? How might the
data be reconfigured to illustrate different aspects of the data
set? (One avenue of inquiry is suggested in the questions
section on the student handout.)
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Have groups decide how to present the information in a
meaningful way. Students might consider tables, bar graphs, pie
graphs, or some other way to represent the data. Based on what
they find in the data, what kind of campaign would they design
to reduce wildland fires?
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What additional information would students want in this data
set? What points would they like clarified?
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As an extension, have students look at and compile weekly
situation reports for each month published online by the
National Interagency Coordination Center. How many fires and
acres burned were there each month? Where did the largest fires
occur? How do each month's totals compare to the prescribed fire
totals for that month? Find the reports at:
http://www.cidi.org/wildfire/
A first step could be to collapse the data into total fires and
total acres. Students' data analysis will differ depending upon what
they choose to highlight.
Students will likely have a number of additional questions prompted
by the data set, such as:
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What is each agency's jurisdiction? Is there any overlap in
fires reported?
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What were the data collection strategies? Were they the same for
all agencies?
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What systems were in place to ensure data reliability?
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Specifically, what kind of fires are included in each of the
categories?
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What kind of fires are included under each of the other
human-caused fire categories?
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Why was state/private data not included for prescribed fires? Is
that data available elsewhere?
See the
list of resources for Fire Wars Printable Activity I.
The "Fire Season Statistics" activity aligns with the following
Principles and Standards for School Mathematics:
Grades 6-8
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Mathematics Standard:
Number and Operations
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Data Analysis and Probability
Grades 9-12
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Mathematics Standard:
Number and Operations
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Data Analysis and Probability
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