Case Studies of Wildfire Education for Youth in the United States: Reinventing Our Relationship to Fire, Community, and the Environment

• In Event: Roundtable Session 60
  In Roundtable Session: Political Participation and Community-Based Environmental Learning

Abstract

Wildfire education programs for youth (WEY) in the U.S. remain an understudied type of environmental education. After inventorying 50 programs via web and brief interviews, we studied three programs that take place in fire-prone areas in California, Oregon and Minnesota. Using the theoretical lens of place-based education (PBE), we asked whether these programs delved into social as well as ecological aspects of wildfire, and whether and how youth became engaged with their local ecology and communities through WEY. We analyzed curricula, observed field trips, and interviewed coordinators and teachers. We found each program focused on a key strategy to engage youth and teachers in a place-based approach to WEY: community-based service learning projects, science investigations, or hands-on field science.

Authors

• Heidi L. Ballard, University of California - Davis

• Emily Evans, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Victoria E. Sturtevant, Southern Oregon University

• Pam J. Jakes, USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station