Program lets students get personal with fire ecology

By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian

More than 200 Big Sky High School students were responsible for the smoke plumes rising from the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation property west of town Thursday morning.

In the name of science, the inquiring minds torched about an acre of cheatgrass and knapweed to get a hands-on education about fire ecology.

Inspired by their classroom studies in the school's Integrated Biology and Earth Systems program, the students wanted to answer mysteries such as: Can insects survive a burn? Does fire quash invasive weeds and native plants? How is soil quality affected by heat?

After temperature sticks were placed in the test site to help measure the intensity of the fire, DNRC firefighters torched the dry grasses in a zig-zag pattern.

As thick smoke rose and the 4 to 6 mph wind pushed the blaze, the students watched intently with huge smiles on their faces.

"It's not every day we're encouraged to set things on fire," said Kallan Kropp, a sophomore. "This is really exciting, and I'm glad we can actually take all the stuff we learn in class and put it to use.

"I'm hoping we come up with some useful information that could help our environment and deal with our knapweed problems."

"I really like learning this way," said Kyle Terrell. "It's great to get out of the classroom."

Cheers rang out after the fire neatly consumed itself during the first burn of the first test plot, and the DNRC firefighters received applause for their surgically precise controlled burn.

"That was beautiful," said science teacher Kathleen Kennedy.

The event was made possible through a partnership with the University of Montana's Ecologist, Educators and Schools Program, DNRC and the National Science Foundation.

During the past month, Big Sky science students have been counting plants and insects at the plots to determine diversity and abundance.

After the burning, the students will take soil samples and reseed some areas with native plants and return to the area periodically to observe changes in plant and insect life. The students also will prepare posters on their research and write about the project for their school newspaper.

Since fall, two UM students, Jenny Wolfe and Andrew Whiteley, have been teaching the younger students how to collect samples.

Sponsored by an Ecologist, Educators and Schools Program fellowship, the UM students have been visiting and teaching in the classrooms of science teachers Dave Oberbillig and Kennedy twice a week.

"This is just a great example of what can happen when you get knowledgeable graduate and doctoral students working with high school teachers," said Carol Brewer, ECOS director.

"The teachers help the graduate students teach, and the graduate students help teachers by lending expert knowledge."

The ECOS-Partners Program is designed to contribute to a national model of how locally based ecological research can be introduced to improve the science teaching and learning in schools and university environments.

"When we learned of ECOS and that we could partner with UM, we jumped at the opportunity," said Kennedy. "Our whole goal is to offer more locally relevant, hands-on experiences for our kids, and this program has been a wonderful boost.

"It also makes us feel so fortunate to be on this end of town and to have such wonderful resources, such as the DNRC, just a parking lot away."

Reporter Betsy Cohen can be reached at 523-5253 or at bcohen@missoulian.com

Copyright © 2005 Missoulian