Overview
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How Good Fire Builds Habitat for Animals and Plants
Author: Jeanine Pfeiffer, PhD
Lesson partner: Rebecca Lowry, Humboldt County Office of Education
Grades: 6 - 8
Suggested Amount of Time: Two 30 – 45 minute sessions
Curriculum Themes
- Cultural Strengths
- Relationship to Place
- Cross Curricular Integration
Learning Goals
- See California woodlands, grasslands, and chaparral as Native ancestral territory that was stewarded for millennia
- Investigate climate change impacts on plant species
- Analyze how fire suppression negatively impacts woodlands, grasslands, and chaparral
- Understand the goals of good fire/cultural burning, and how they are different from prescribed burns
- Focus on Native conservation of specific plant species through cultural burning, and how this simultaneously improves habitat for fauna
- Consider how we can make life choices to support good fire and respect cultural traditions
Lesson Overview
A multi-media, science-focused exploration of how cultural burning (good fire) brings health to traditional basketry plants, often the same plants that provide food and shelter to native bird species.
Teacher Background
Respect for indigenous science (also known as IK-indigenous knowledge and TEK-traditional ecological knowledge) is strong within certain academic disciplines and institutions, but relatively unexplored in most parts of the academy.
This unit on traditional cultural burning (“good fire”) weaves Native American studies, cultural studies, ethnography, history, and anthropology together with ecology, environmental studies, and plant biology. In this unit, “conservation” is not defined as “hands-off-put-a-fence-around-it” or “follow-these-specific-regulations,” but as a complex, dynamic interrelationship between peoples who maintain respectful and reciprocal relationships with resources used for food and regalia, social exchanges and ceremony.
Lessons integrate multimedia experience, with activities that can be structured as independent exercises, small group activities, or all-class exercises.
All of the cited source materials are listed on Slide 49, with links to additional resources on Slide 48. These websites are the best go-to sites for more in-depth information for educators who have the time and interest to expand their knowledge.
Interactive Slides
About the Interactive Slides
A key component of this curriculum includes interactive slides and a lesson script/facilitation support. These materials are designed to support ease of implementation and help guide lesson delivery.
The interactive slides are animated to gradually reveal content and may include links to videos and audio playback buttons for Tribal language integration, songs, or slide facilitation.
In addition to the downloadable lesson and student handouts, this lesson comprised of Two 30 – 45 minute sessions, includes interactive slides and lesson script/ facilitation support.
Lesson Script/ Facilitation Support
*To ensure full accessibility, we recommend making a copy of the instructional material(s).
Instructions:
To use the slides effectively:
- Project the slides in "Slideshow Mode" to activate animations. Written content will appear with each click.
- Set speaker volume before beginning the lesson to ensure all students can hear audio content.
- Play audio by clicking the audio playback icons one at a time. There may be a brief pause while the audio loads.
- Hovering over an audio playback icon will reveal a playback bar that allows you to play, pause, adjust speed, or fast-forward the audio.
- Note: You do not need to use the playback bar unless you wish to adjust playback. Simply clicking the icon will play the audio.