Burning Issues was produced at Florida State University's Interactive Media Science Project (IMSP) with the support of the United States Bureau of Land Management. Burning Issues II is an update of our very popular Burning Issues CD, originally released in 2000. The purpose of the Burning Issues program is to educate the public about fire in ecosystems. This web version can also be downloaded to your computer which is very useful if you have older machines or slow internet access.
Burning Issues helps secondary students learn about the role of fire in ecosystems and the use of fire to manage natural areas. The program challenges users to learn about prescribed burns, wildland fire supression, the relationships between fire and invasive plant species and how to build "firewise" homes. This program contains EcoTours of different biotic communities, an interactive field guide containing more than 300 photos and descriptions of organisms, five interactive activities, print materials for educators and students and much, much more. Covered are topics ranging from building a firewise house to how wildlife has adapted to fires. The culminating activity is to put out a simulated fire expending the least amount of time and money. The program has been used by schools, fire departments and federal agencies.
Burning Issues gives you an opportunity to explore the exciting but dangerous world of wildland fire management. As you explore, you will discover why fire is a vital part of managing our natural resources for today and tomorrow.
Burning Issues has been designed as a multi-layered HTML-based application, offering a wealth of information at any one time to the student. In order to do this effectively, it uses "pop-up" windows--separate web browser mini-windows that are used to display information such as an instructional video, a description of an animal, or a glossary of fire terms. Users of this program should note that using pop-up windows within Burning Issues does not pose any security risk to the student as far as viewing unwanted or inappropriate content. In addition, the BI software relies on Java to deliver various lessons to the students.
Please ClICK ON THE FIRE in the image on the left to connect to the online version of Burning Issues.
Click on the DOWNLOAD BUTTON to have the entire contents of the Burning Issues DVD downloaded to your computer. To best view this project you need to be on the web using Firefox, Safari, or IE. In addition you will need Quicktime and Flash installed. Click Quicktime or Flash to download these applications.
Additional Interactive Media Science Projects
Additional Information contact: George Dawson