We can all help make the world a safer place by learning more about how and why wildfires start. From historical statistics, to the resources used to extinguish wildfires, to ways to help prevent wildfires, teaching about wildfires is an important part of the US Forest Service’s work.
FireWorks is an educational program about the science of wildland fire, designed for K–12 students by the US Forest Service. The program provides students with interactive, hands-on materials to study wildland fire. It is highly interdisciplinary, and students learn about properties of matter, chemical and physical processes, ecosystem fluctuations and cycles, habitat and survival, and human interactions with ecosystems. Students using FireWorks ask questions; gather, analyze, and interpret information; and communicate their discoveries.
The FireWorks program consists of curricula and a trunk of materials, including laboratory equipment, specimens, and kits of specialized materials for educators.
Many activities in the FireWorks curricula are applicable wherever wildland fires occur (particularly activities in Units II and III), while activities about fire ecology and fire history (Units I, V, and VI) are applicable only in specific regions:
- Northern Rocky Mountains and Northern Cascades (complete curricula)
- Sierra Nevada Curriculum (complete curricula)
- Northern California Oak Woodlands (middle school activities)
- Sagebrush Ecosystem (complete curricula)
- Southern Oregon (FireWorks! SOFEE elementary and middle school curricula)
- Missouri River Country (from the northern Rocky Mountain Front to the tallgrass prairies) (a few activities)
- Cross Timbers (10 activities designed for high school)
FireWorks also includes an activity that explores how and why the Pikunii (Blackfeet) people carried fire.
Educators can adapt a generic version of the Fireworks curriculum to their specific ecosystems. A table summarizes the content for each activity in the curriculum at each level.
Many FireWorks lessons have been translated to Spanish and are available on the Curricula traducida al Español page. A list of materials for FireWorks activities is also accessible in Spanish on the Baúl de Materiales page.
The FireWorks educational program is produced by the Fire Modeling Institute of the US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire, Fuel, and Smoke Science Program.