Students investigate, “How can we help our community live safely with wildfires?” by studying fire science, weather, ecosystem resilience, recovery, and preparedness in Southern California. Through fieldwork, hands-on investigations, and collaboration with SDG&E, the San Diego Zoo, CAL FIRE, emergency responders, ecologists, park rangers, and native plant experts, students analyze evidence and develop practical community solutions. Teams create safety maps, emergency kits, and action-plan posters, refining their work through expert, peer, and teacher feedback. Students present their solutions at a school wildfire preparedness fair across three rooms focused on fire science, fire ecology, and community readiness.
Learning goals
Students will investigate, “How can we help our community live safely with wildfires?” by explaining how fuels, heat, wind, humidity, and climate affect wildfire risk in Southern California. They will analyze how fire affects interdependent ecosystems, identify signs of healthy post-fire recovery, and compare ways communities use science to protect people, habitats, and natural resources. With feedback from SDG&E, the San Diego Zoo, CAL FIRE, emergency responders, and local ecology experts, teams will evaluate evidence and design accurate safety maps, emergency kits, and action-plan posters. Students will share and revise their work collaboratively, then communicate practical recommendations across the science, ecology, and community rooms of the school preparedness fair.
Standards
[Next Generation Science Standards] 5-ESS3-1 - Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment.
[Next Generation Science Standards] ESS.2.D - Weather and Climate
[Next Generation Science Standards] ESS.3.C - Human Impacts on Earth Systems
[Next Generation Science Standards] ESS.3.D - Global Climate Change
[Next Generation Science Standards] 3-5.AF.6.1 - Construct an explanation of observed relationships (e.g., the distribution of plants in the back yard).
[Next Generation Science Standards] LS.2.D - Social Interactions and Group Behavior
[Next Generation Science Standards] LS.2.A - Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
Competencies
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
Self Directed Learning - Students use teacher and peer feedback and self-reflection to monitor and direct their own learning while building self knowledge both in and out of the classroom.
Products
Student teams will create investigation journals, wildfire-risk data displays, ecosystem recovery models, and annotated safety maps grounded in Southern California evidence. With feedback from SDG&E, CAL FIRE, San Diego Zoo, emergency responders, and local ecology experts, teams will assemble demonstration emergency kits and revise clear, accessible action-plan posters. Their final community wildfire preparedness fair exhibit will answer, “How can we help our community live safely with wildfires?” The school exhibition will feature three rooms focused on fire science, fire ecology, and community preparedness.
Launch
Launch with a “Wildfire Community Challenge” in which students rotate through three rooms to investigate a no-flame fire-and-weather simulation, compare images of Southern California habitats before and after fire, and inspect a model emergency kit and safety map. Representatives from SDG&E, CAL FIRE, the San Diego Zoo, emergency response organizations, and local ecology or native plant groups introduce real community challenges and invite student questions. Teams analyze evidence, record initial ideas, and create a quick preparedness recommendation in response to the question, “How can we help our community live safely with wildfires?” Conclude by revealing that students will develop safety maps, emergency kits, and action-plan posters for a school fair featuring science-of-fire, fire-ecology, and community rooms.
Exhibition
Host a schoolwide community wildfire preparedness fair organized into three rooms: the science of fire, the ecology of fire, and community preparedness. Student teams will present evidence-based safety maps, emergency kits, and action-plan posters that answer, “How can we help our community live safely with wildfires?” Invite families and partners from SDG&E, the San Diego Zoo, CAL FIRE, emergency response organizations, parks, and native plant nurseries to explore demonstrations, practice preparedness routines, and provide feedback. Visitors can complete a “ready, resilient, and informed” checklist documenting what they learned and one action they will take.
