Nature of Fire: Grades 6-8 Activities

Nature of Fire is our second activity collection release featuring three activities for educators of students in grades 6-8. The collection invites learners to investigate wildland fire and ecosystem change.

Designed to be flexible, the activities can be used as stand-alone lessons, or all together as a cohesive unit of instruction using a storyline technique.

Activities

1. Nothing Succeeds Like Succession

Students read a story about succession and investigate the connections among plants, animals, and successional stages in a local ecosystem.

2. Living with Fire

Students learn about the three elements that a fire needs to burn and find out how this “fire triangle” can be used to prevent and manage wildland fires.

3. Burning Issues

Students graph changes in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) over the course of several decades to explore the relationship among CO2, the Earth’s climate, and wildfires, and suggest ways to reduce negative effects of fire.

Features

• Multidisciplinary activities integrate core discipline areas, including STEM subjects, reading, writing, and social studies.
• Hands-on activities connect children to nature in the city and the outdoors.
• How to think, not what to think. Activities are designed to develop students’ critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Background information, suggestions for enrichment, and student assessment tools for teachers.
• Copyright-free Student Pages, or worksheets, can be easily loaded to Google Classroom.
• Activities are practical, adaptable, and flexible. They are easy to do, require minimal preparation; no special supplies are needed.
• Explicit connections to academic standards for science, English language arts, and social studies.
• New supporting features include “Differentiated Instruction” techniques, “Take It Outside!”, “Did You Know?” forest facts, plus a “Career Corner” within each Student Page introduces youth to forest-related careers.

Connecting PLT Canada’s Nature of Fire Activity Collection to Province and Territory Curriculum Grades 6-8

Project Learning Tree Canada is committed to supporting educators in providing instruction that helps students meet mandatory learning expectations of their province and territory’s curriculum. Nature of Fire includes activities exploring the real world through cross-curricular integrated learning, critical thinking and problem solving. They provide students opportunities to practice skills, and make personal connections to the curriculum as they investigate their environment and communicate about it.