Office of Curriculum, Technology, & Assessment

USDA Forest Service

Program Title: Fire’s Role in Native Grassland Ecosystems
Program Length: 60 minutes
Delivery Method: Video-teleconferencing
Program Provider: The Black Hills National Forest
Site Limit:
Additional Information: Amy Ballard 605-343-1567
Registration: Amy Ballard 605-343-1567 with your school name, address, telephone number, DDN bridge site name, number of students, and grade
Registration deadline: January 18, 2008
 

Description: Students will learn six different native grassland shrubs, forbs and grasses, how they not only adapt to survive but benefit from fire, and fire’s role in healthy grassland ecosystems. Students will handle samples of these plants and learn how to use plant identification guides.

A box of materials and pre-program work will be sent to the teacher one week ahead of each program. Sessions can be taken individually even though they have been prepared to tier to each other. Over 38 schools and 4500 students have participated in our programs in the past 5 years. References from participating teachers are available.

These hands-on programs have been specifically designed to provide students with educational and visually stimulating lessons on forest ecology. Music, PowerPoint programs, videos and computer models are used to present the curriculum. Students handle and identify South Dakota plants or build forest and tree models and are asked to complete worksheets with the instructor throughout the program. All programs are planned for 45 minutes and bridged for 1 hour.

(NOTE: Each site must audio mute upon connecting to the session to prevent voice activated moving of the cameras from site to site.)