Wildfires: Why They’re Getting Worse and What It Actually Means

This lesson, Wildfires: Why They’re Getting Worse and What It Actually Means, teaches students how climate change, land management decisions, and human activity are combining to make modern wildfires larger, longer, and more destructive. Students examine the fire triangle, fuel load buildup, drought conditions, snowpack reduction, wildfire smoke, and the wildland-urban interface while analyzing how Earth’s atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere interact during wildfire events. The lesson also explores the unintended consequences of 20th-century fire suppression policies, compares them to Indigenous controlled burn practices, and evaluates the economic, environmental, and human health impacts of increasingly severe wildfires. Through data analysis, scientific reasoning, and evidence-based activities, students develop a deeper understanding of how interconnected systems and human choices shape wildfire behavior and risk.

What’s Included:

• Student article
• Lesson objective
• Application questions
• Data table & analysis
• Hypothesis builder
• Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER)
• Independent / dependent variable analysis
• Compare & contrast
• Multiple choice
• True / False
• Vocabulary
• Exit ticket
• Crossword puzzle
• Word search