(Not So) Slow Burn: Teaching Climate Change Through Wildfires

In this lesson, students learn how climate change is making wildfires worse in Oregon and across the globe and create a wildfire solution for prevention or preparation.

Step 1 - Inquire: Students brainstorm their relationship with fire, review data on wildfires in Oregon, and reflect on why wildfires are increasing in frequency in Oregon.

Step 2 - Investigate: Students watch two videos and make connections between climate change and wildfires.

Step 3 - Inspire: Students learn about climate refugees, research prevention and preparation strategies, and create a presentation to promote one of these strategies.

Positives

• This lesson can be taught in a language arts class or a science class.

• Students make a personal connection to fire before learning about climate change’s impact on wildfires.

• Students promote a prevention or preparation strategy to share with their class, school, or community.

Additional Prerequisites

• It would be helpful for students to have some background knowledge of what makes fire burn. The resources Heat and Fuel and Oxygen can provide more context for students.

• The data in the sortable table titled, Oregon Biggest Fires, comes from this article. You can access the data by clicking, “Download the data.”
  

Differentiation

• If teachers want to provide more context on active fires in Oregon, this map provides up-to-date information.

• This video can provide additional information and also serve as inspiration for students to create their own presentations.
  

This lesson allows students to learn about the causes of wildfire and how they are induced by climate change. It also highlights locations at risk to wildfires in Oregon and ways students can develop tactics to promote effective management of wildfire events. The archival data on wildfires will enable them to interpret wildfire hotspots for contingency planning. This lesson is very engaging and is recommended for classroom use.

Primary Standards

• English Language Arts
  • Reading: History/Social Studies (6-12)
    • 6-8.RH.7 Integrate visual information with other information in print and digital texts.
• Science
  • ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
    • 7.ESS3.2 Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.

Supporting Standards

• English Language Arts
  • Reading: History/Social Studies (6-12)
    • 6-8.RH.1 Analyze what the text says explicitly as well as inferentially; cite several pieces of textual evidence to support primary and secondary source analysis.
    • 6-8.RH.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
  • Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
    • 6-8.RST.8 Distinguish among facts, reasoned judgment based on research findings, and speculation in a text.
• Science
  • ESS2: Earth's Systems
    • 7.ESS2.2 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales.