Fire – Science

Community education product

In this task, students develop a communication product to explain to an audience of their choice issues dealing with bushfire ecology or management.

Students will develop a community education product about prescribed burns. Few people understand the purpose of prescribed burns. Many will complain about spreading smoke while these burns occur. Students will need to communicate effectively with their chosen audience, e.g. property owners concerned about bushfire risk, volunteer fire-fighters concerned about fire management, home owners affected by smoke. Issues to cover:

• Methods used for identifying areas to be burnt
• The weather conditions needed for the burns to occur safely
• Ecological benefits along with bushfire hazard reduction
• Potential for community input into some prescribed burns
• Inconvenience of smoke
• Why random burns will not reduce bushfire risks in the longer term

Students will describe their audience. They will choose a medium for the development of their product that their audience is likely to use.

Resources