A story that dominated the headlines throughout the summer was wildland fires, burning out of control throughout the southeastern, southwestern, and western United States. How was the 2000 wildfire season different from its predecessors?

Teaching the Problem

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Chemistry students:
Students can study the role that lightning plays in atmospheric reactions during a thunderstorm in the Chemistry Explorer activity, Energy Directions.

Biology students:
Students read in the article "Wildfire smoke poses health threat" how people who suffer from asthma and emphysema are particularly at risk for respiratory problems from smoke inhalation. Students can learn about these two diseases with the Biology Gateways activities:

• Health and the Respiratory System: Asthma
  
  
• Health and the Respiratory System: Emphysema

Math students:

• Have students work the Destination Math activity, Mastering Algebra I, Course I: Graphing Ordered Pairs
  
  
• Then ask students to graph the following data. Have them decide what data to represent on the axes and what scale to use.

Analyzing the Problem

Chemistry students:
Ask the students: What ingredient does lightning contribute to the chemical reactions in the atmosphere and to wildland fires? (To give students more background, suggest that they read "This Thing Called Fire." Ask them to consider what three things are required for a fire to burn.)

Biology students:
Ask students to compare and contrast asthma and emphysema. Then have them predict how exposure to thick smoke might aggravate the symptoms of each disease.

Math students:
Have students determine if there is a correlation between the number of fires and the number of acres that burn in any given year.

1. Fire Ecology: Resource Management Education Unit is a series of classroom lessons with Teacher's Guides about different aspects of fire ecology. The activities are appropriate for science, language arts, and art classes.
   
   
2. The Yellowstone Park fires of 1988 provide a lot of lessons. Two sites examining the aftermath of these fires are:
   
   
   • NASA's Classroom of the Future: Yellowstone Fires
     
     
   • Fires of '88
     
     
3. Discovery.com's Line of Fire: New Respect for an Old Enemy offers dispatches from a fire, firefighter stories, and more.
   
   
4. The severity of wildfires this past summer has fueled the debate between loggers and environmentalists over what policy best protects our forests. Divide students into three groups: lobbyists for logging interests, lobbyists for environmental groups, and "Congress." Have the lobbyists present their arguments to Congress, which must then write a law about the future of logging. Students can begin researching their cases with the following articles and Web sites:
   
   
   • "Debate rages over fire management policies"
     
     
   • "Senate to hold hearings on wildfires"
     
     
   • Forest Health vs. Salvage Logging
     
     
   • "The Changing Role of Timber Harvest in Our National Forests"
   
   
   
5. ENN.com's article, "Fire on the River of No Return," should engage students with the author's dramatic personal account of being trapped on a raft in a blazing national park.