From Beneath the Ashes

Sample Discovery Activity: Sprouting Life

People have always had an ambivalent attitude towards fire. On the one hand, fire is destructive; unchecked, it consumes everything in its path. On the other hand, fire is necessary for human survival and civilization.

This ambivalence to fire was often expressed in early myths. One of the most enduring of these is the Assyrian myth of the Phoenix, a bird which lives for five hundred years. At the end of its life span, the Phoenix builds a funeral pyre of cinnamon and other aromatic spices on top of an oak or palm tree. From the body of the burned bird rises its offspring. The first act of the offspring is to carry its parent's body to the temple of the sun in Egypt. The fivehundredyear cycle repeats itself as the Phoenix matures, constructs its own pyre, and succumbs to a new flame from which its successor springs. The myth suggests that destruction by fire is essential for the survival of the species.

The myth of the Phoenix, the bird that rises from beneath the ashes, is an ancient expression of an ongoing human dilemma: what is the appropriate human response to fire? If it is a natural event, should it be allowed to shape the ecosystem at will, or should people intervene in the face of destruction of the ecosystem as it currently exists?

The 1985 fires in Yellowstone National Park, our nation's oldest and one of its most spectacular national preserves, dramatized this dilemma. Millions of people watched in horror as daily news clips showed the raging fire consuming nearly half of Yellowstone's 2.2 million acres. Still, new growth and increased diversity of species in the aftermath of the fire have affirmed scientists' theories that fire is necessary to the survival and continued vitality of forest ecosystems.
Objectives
The students will:
1. identify positive as well as negative effects of forest fires.
2. describe the forest as a cyclical and dynamic ecosystem in which fire is a
natural successional event.
3. identify science careers.
Time Allotment
two 60-minute sessions, with some time to follow up and make observations in the following days
Materials
butcher paper or drawing paper
crayons or markers
From Beneath the Ashes videotape
large posters of forest fire and of a forest with animals
aerial photograph of urban and rural mosaic patterns
sample terrarium
quart size zip lock bag
potting soil
radish, bean and clover seeds
water
journals
pencils or pens
Advanced Preparation
Arrange the students into cooperative groups.
Procedure
Tap Prior Knowledge
1. Display the posters of the forest and the forest fire for the students to see.

2. Write the words FOREST FIRE on a large piece of butcher paper. Ask the students what adjectives and images these words evoke.

3. After a brief discussion, ask the students to record their thoughts and feelings about forest fires in drawings, paragraphs and/or poems. The students may compile their drawings and writings into a collage on the butcher paper around the words FOREST FIRE. They may write adjectives and phrases describing forest fires on the collage. (Save the collage for later reference.)
Share with Neighbor
4. Discuss the images in the collage. Which are positive? Which are negative? Are there more positive or negative images? Why? From where did the students get their images and ideas of forest fires?

5. Introduce the idea of the Phoenix as a bird whose death by fire is necessary for survival of the species (see introduction for information). Ask if the students can think of ways in which forest fires might help the forest survive. Tell the students to note any positive effects that are mentioned in the video.

6. View the tape. Discuss the positive effects and add to the list. Ask how the word "mosaic" was used in the film. Show aerial photos of urban and rural areas as examples of mosaic patterns. Or ask the students if any of them have ever flown in an airplane. What did it look like when they looked down at the ground? This will illustrate the mosaic effect.

7. Discuss the role of the scientists in the intervention. What types of careers did the video offer as examples. What skills were illustrated? Encourage the students to keep short descriptions of careers in their journals.
Hands-on Activity
8. In the next session, show the students a sample terrarium and demonstrate how to make one. Distribute materials and have each group make its own.
a. Fill zip lock bag with approximately two inches of potting soil.
b. Sprinkle seeds over soil.
c. Cover seeds with another one inch of potting soil.
d. Sprinkle soil liberally with water.
e. Close bag.

9. These terrariums represent our environment following a fire. What happens? Have the students keep observing and recording what happens in their journals. In 35 days, radish plants will appear. Clover and bean plants will appear in 510 days. Allow sufficient time for reconvening and discussing the seedlings in individual groups.
Proposing Explanations and Solutions: Introduce the Scientific Concept
10. If our terrarium is a model of an environment just after a fire, then we can see how different things grow differently. Plants of different sizes and species, germinating at varying times, demonstrate the diversity of plant growth that can occur after a fire. Perhaps fire does not mean death and destruction in every case. Introduce the idea of forest succession: during various stages of maturity, different plants are prevalent.

11. What can students conclude, now that they have seen the video and have seen their own plants growing? Have them summarize the important thoughts from the activity and video in their journals.
Home Activity/Parent Involvement
Give the directions for making terrariums to the students so that they can make one at home. Instruct them to observe changes on an ongoing basis with others at home to see that new growth and diversity occurs in the terrarium environment. Perhaps they can try adding different fertilizers to parts of the terrarium or manipulate the sunlight, water, or temperature to see if there is a difference in growth. These changes would replicate the ashy fertilizer of a newly-burned forest or the shady conditions of a seedling under a dense covering of taller trees.
Lesson Assessment
Collect the students journals and review them for completion and accuracy. Their writings should demonstrate an understanding of how scientists have intervened and how fire can help rejuvenate an environment. Some of the regenerative aspects of the fire at Yellowstone that might be included are: Fire maintains the mosaic pattern of growth in a forest. It clears away areas of older growth. This ensures that the forests will never burn uniformly.

The ashy residue that covers the soil is a rich source of nutrients for new plant life, including species that have lain dormant for years because the older forest environment was inhospitable to them. The new plants and their seeds provide food for small mammals and birds and for larger ruminants.


Forest plants are so adapted that fire is necessary to the continuation of the species, e.g. the lodgepole pine has serotinous cones which release their seeds only when stimulated by fire, and the aspen's underground structure responds to fire by sending up as many as 500 new shoots to replace one firefelled old aspen. An increased amount of decaying wood attracts and sustains large insect populations which provide food for small birds which, in turn, attract larger birds of prey.
Books to Read
Prairie Primer, by Stan Nichols and Lynn Entine, University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension Program, 1978
The Age of Fable or Beauties of Mythology, by Thomas Bullfinch, New American Library, 1962
"Yellowstone: Nature's Fiery Housecleaning," in Science World, by Barbara Bedway, Scholastic, Inc., December 1989
Taking Action/Additional Activities
Use the glossary section to spark curiosity among the students. All of the terms are related to the video content or the activity. Allow the students a chance to choose a term or two and investigate it on their own. Illustrations, three-dimensional models, or written descriptions can be developed for each one. Then, as a class, they can all be arranged in a single concept map on the wall of the classroom.

Have a debate over the question "To burn or not to burn?" Let the students conduct more research to find out about safety issues and benefits in controlled burning of prairies and forests. Teach them organized debating skills using this topic.


Arrange a field trip to a prairie restoration site or a national park, where burning has been completed. have students compare and take inventories of the plants (and animals) that are in the different areas. Which are native? Which are not?
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