Wildfire Prevention Education for Teachers

This CD will be available to participants in the training program.

Thanks for your interest in Wildfire Prevention Education! The Virginia Department of Forestry is currently developing a new training program for teachers.

To help us make this site a valuable and useful "tool" for you please let us know what information you would like to see and have available here.

The following will provide you with some information about our new CD-ROM and the training that will be offered.

Purpose

The Wildfire Prevention CD-ROM, is designed with one goal in mind - to educate. Using the CD-ROM to actively engage student learning will increase a student’s understanding of the importance of fire in managing our ecosystems.

The Wildfire Prevention CD-ROM is designed to:

Show students that fire is vital to the health of ecosystems;
Teach how prescribed fire benefits wildlife;
Show how prescribed fire prevents disastrous wildfires;
Promote the importance of wildfire prevention;
Provide an educational tool that can be used in the classroom to enhance critical thinking skills concerning the environment.

The CD-ROM offers a fun, attention grabbing presentation of facts and information about fire and ecosystems. Built on interactive games, exercises and messages, this CD-ROM will help students understand how fire helps shape the natural environment.

In The Classroom

A Teacher’s Guide is designed, and provided to assist the educator in using the CD-ROM. Presented in an easy-to-use format, the guide provides information to facilitate learning about fire.

To assist in the learning experience, each of the content areas on the CD-ROM includes grade level, subjects, concepts, skills and correlation’s to state educational standards.

A brief introduction to each topic is provided along with an activity to reinforce the content. Using this CD-ROM and Teacher’s Guide, along with the contact list provided and a little imagination, the educator can lead students into an exploration of many subjects. Together, they can go well beyond merely understanding the role that fire has played (and continues to play) in shaping ecosystems and providing habitat for wildlife. The Wildfire Prevention CD-ROM is primarily designed for use in 4th - 6th grade classrooms, but can be used with a wide variety of audiences.

Computer Requirements

This program has been developed to work on both IBM-compatible and Macintosh systems. The minimum and recommended system requirements will be listed on the back of the CD-ROM case.

The Workshop

The purpose of these workshops is to train you in the use of the CD-ROM and show you ways to teach the fundamentals of preventing wildfires, the good and bad sides of fire in a fun and engaging way. The workshops will be limited to 50 and will be on a first come basis, so sign-up early when they are announced in your area. To check on workshops available, visit http://www.itm-info.com/wildfire and click on "Virginia."

Last modified: Monday, 19-Oct-2009 14:35:33 EDT