Lesson Overview: Students will each be assigned a plant, animal, or fungus to research. They will write a research paper on their species and present their findings. During presentations, classmates will take notes to be used later for an open-notebook quiz.

Lesson Goals:

• Increase students’ understanding of how species living in the Sierra Nevada survive and even thrive in an environment that includes wildland fire.
• Increase students’ understanding that species’ adaptations to fire are attuned to specific kinds of fire.

Objectives:

• Students will become well informed on the fire ecology of at least one species in the Sierra Nevada, as demonstrated by a research paper and presentation to the class.
• Students can distinguish different kinds of fire (severity and frequency) and identify a few species adapted to each kind.