Last updated: August 8, 2025
Lesson Plan
A Fire's Story
In the third lesson of our fire education curriculum, students will learn the ways in which fire tells a story. In what it leaves behind, land managers can explore what the landscape looked like before fire and make decisions on how to manage going forward!
NPS Graphic
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Science
- Lesson Duration:
- 30 Minutes
- State Standards:
- SC.4.L.17.4
SC.4.N.1.1
SC.4.N.1.3
SC.4.N.1.4
Essential Question
What is the difference between a prescribed and wildland fire? What are the steps land managers and wildland fire fighters take in initiating a prescribed burn? Why does Big Cypress National Preserve have prescribed fires?
Objective
In this activity, students will:
1. Understand they key steps in researching, planning, and implementing a prescribed fire.
2. Identify planning, implementing, and monitoring stages of a prescribed burn.
3. List three benefits of prescribed burns.
4. List at least two things all prescribed burns protect.
Background
Arguably one of the most powerful natural forces; fire shapes, creates, and replenishes the landscape. Historically, fire caused by lightning during the transition from the dry to wet seasons was a regular and frequent occurrence in the prairies and pinelands of South Florida. When natural low intensity fires swept through fire adapted habitats it would benefit the overall health of these environments. Fires help to thin and prune plants, recycle nutrients to the soil, create space for new plants to grow and animals to forage for food. Despite the ecological benefits fire has not always been viewed as a natural and healthy part of the ecosystem. Wildfires were suppressed leading to the accumulation of plant material, ecosystems getting out of balance and the potential for catastrophic and devastating fires.
Today land managers understand and recognize the ecological benefits of fire and work return fire to the environment. This is done by either managing fire caused by lightning or other causes to burn if it is safe and beneficial to do so or setting a prescribed fire. A prescribed fire is defined as a fire set in a skilled manner to achieve specific results in a definite place under exacting weather conditions called parameters. Development of roads and homes in landscapes where fire was a natural part of the environment in South Florida has the potential to threaten life and property. Prescribed fire is an important tool used to protect homes, roads, and property from the effects of a devastating fire. Big Cypress National Preserve has one of the largest Fire and Aviation Management Programs within the National Park Service. Its goal to restore fire regimes within the preserve using prescribed and wildland fire by following a framework outlined in a comprehensive plan – Prescribed burn. This plan identifies firefighter and public safety concerns. The prescribed fires set by Big Cypress Fire Management Division are the culmination of research and careful planning. In order to conduct a prescribed fire, researchers and scientists must first collect data on the area they want to burn, which includes fuel type, distance to roads and structures, as well as the typical fire return interval for that habitat. Data from surrounding areas must be monitored as well in order to increase safety of the burn. A burn plan will be created, complete with maps and weather data. A burn boss assigned to take charge of the burning process. Prior to the set date for the fire, temperature, humidity, and wind speed and direction are monitored; if the weather conditions are not right the day of the scheduled burn, the fire will not be conducted.
Prescribed Fire: Interpreting the Maps
A critical part of the burn plan for a prescribed fire and a wildland fire is the fire map. These maps are consulted and adjusted throughout the process. Maps are created before, during, and after a prescription burn. Before prescribed fires, maps are used to show the desired outcomes like burn mosaics, and areas for treatment. For both prescribed and wildland fires that occur over multiple days, a map will be created for each day of the fire to show its progression or suppression. After a prescribed fire has been completed or a wildland fire that has either gone out naturally or been suppressed, a final map will be created to show the outcome of that fire event as well as information on what areas did and did not burn, acreage, and other important information such as structures, homes, roads, trails, and threatened and endangered species habitat.
Sometimes maps use satellite imaginary to depict the different vegetation covers or a color chart. Regardless of what stage the map is created and whether it is for a wildland fire or prescription burn, every map created by the Big Cypress Fire Crew must contain the following pieces of information: title, legend, scale, coordinates, area of interest, and date created. The fire maps used in this lesson are from a real prescription (RX) fire burn plan. One map was used prior to the prescribed burns. For this map the area that was ultimately treated has been colored to show the different types of habitats within Big Cypress Preserve. On the left side (west) of Highway 29, satellite imaginary has been used and is more representative of the maps used for prescribed fires. Wildland firefighters and fire ecologists are skilled at interpreting the differences in vegetation types from these images. The other map shows five prescribed burns for the Copeland burn area. This map contains information on the dates of the burns and the total acres treated. Students should be able to compare the two maps.
On both maps, the mapmaker placed latitude and longitude readings on the edges of the map in order for the viewer to locate an exact spot within the map boundaries if they so choose. To find the latitude and longitude coordinates for a specific spot, locate the latitude coordinates on the sides of the map. Longitude is found on the top and bottom of the map.
Preparation
1. Make a copy of the student worksheet: “A Fire’s Story: Prescribed Fire Timeline Cards” for each student or student groups.
a. If desired, assemble additional construction paper, string, and clothes pins for hanging the timeline cards.
2. Project or print colored copies of the “Copeland RX Planning” and “Copeland RX (multi-day)” maps for each student or group of students and one copy of the student worksheet for each student
3. Optional, watch a video on prescribed fire at Big Cypress National Preserve.
Materials
Download Student Worksheet - Reading the Maps
Download Copeland Burn Map - Post Burn
Download Copeland Burn Map - Vegetation Type
Procedure
1. Ask students to share what they already know about fire in South Florida. Do they think that fire is beneficial or harmful?
2. Share with students some information on Big Cypress National Preserve’s prescribed fire program. As one of the largest in the National Park Service, the preserve’s wildland firefighters will conduct approximately 60,000 acres of prescribed burns annually.
3. Working alongside National Park Service land managers, resource managers, invasive species specialists, and botanists, wildlife biologists, and ecologists, fire management rangers identify target areas that need to be burned.
4. Prescribed burns need expertise and planning. Managers must write extensive prescriptions that include information on weather parameters, public and private properties, threatened and endangered species habitat, equipment and tools, ignition, and most importantly wildland fire fighter safety.
5. Ask students if they think that this is an easy or complicated procedure? Can students identify some of the steps that need to be in place before, during, and after a burn?
6. Tell students that they will be investigating some of the key steps in implementing a prescribed burn by assembling a fire timeline.
7. Students will either work in groups or individually to cut out the 10 steps highlighted in this activity. They will then arrange the steps in the correct order.
8. Once students have assembled their timelines review the process.
9. If desired these timelines can be glued onto construction paper and hung up in the room.
10. Students can also research some of the prescription fires in Big Cypress and write their own timelines.
11. Once students have discussed and understand the process of a prescribed burn, it is time to “plan” for a prescription burn in the prairies and pinelands of Big Cypress!
12. Students will either work individually or in groups to interpret two maps from a real prescription burn plan within Big Cypress National Preserve.
13. Pass out copies of the maps and the worksheets. It may be beneficial to go over the map has a group to help orient students. Share with students that these are real maps used by the wildland firefighters and fire ecologists of Big Cypress National Preserve.
14. Starting with the map titled “Copeland RX planning area,” review that RX is an abbreviation for prescription. Explain the difference between how vegetation cover (habitat types) is depicted on this map on the west versus east side of Highway 29.
15. Have students create a compass rose for this map using a ruler and place it within the white Big Cypress National Preserve outline.
16. Review degrees of latitude and longitude and discuss the precision of how these coordinates are displayed (using degrees, minutes and seconds). Ask students why wildland firefighters and fire ecologists would need to be so exact in their locations.
17. Once the compass rose has been created and latitude and longitude discussed, students should be able to answer the worksheet questions.
Vocabulary
Prescribed fire; Prescribed burn; Adaptation; Habitat; Fire return interval; Fire Regime; Fire intensity