Office of Curriculum, Technology, & Assessment

USDA Forest Service

Program Title: Matchstick Forests
Program Length: 60 min
Delivery Method: Video-teleconferencing
Program Provider: The Black Hills National Forest
Site Limit:
Additional Information:  Amy Ballard 605-343-1567
Sign Up: Contact Amy Ballard at 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 be able to describe the effects of tree spacing on fire behavior after observing 3 physical matchstick models burn. Students will build their own “toothpick” forests.

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
 

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