Picacho Middle School (96)

The Picacho Middle School team (#96) is from How to Prevent Forest Fire?. This year they've submitted a project titled How to Prevent Forest Fire?

Proposal
http://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/get_proposal1112.php?team_id=96

Team: 96

School: Picacho Mid

Area of Science: Environment

Proposal: We are planning to research ways to prevent the forest fires. This is a problem that affects people, animals, and human resources. How can we manage forests and other wild areas to reduce the danger and cost of putting out wildfires?

We are planning to model the causes of fires, and strategies to prevent them, using StarLogo.

Team members:

 * Jennifer Lopez
 * Jennifer Gurrola
 * Dariana Rosas
 * Nancy Paniagua
 * Michelle Allison
 * McKenna Thelen

Facilitators:

 * Mrs. Stout
 * Mrs. Kindig
 * Mrs. Hagaman
 * Mrs. Bischof

http://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/get_interim1112.php?team_id=96

Interim:

Problem Definition:
How to prevent forest fire? This is the question that we are going to answer. Forest fire is a problem that exists through the world and is caused by different reasons. According to the FAO Media Center 95 percent of wildfires originate from human activities in forests and adjacent areas. “The Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), which consists of 14 international organizations and secretariats, issued its warning as many countries are experiencing an increasing incidence in the frequency and size of wildfires due to lack of fire management policies and impacts of climate change.”

After reading some materials about forest fire prevention we concluded that education is the key. We will continue researching to find more information about this topic.

"In many cases the fire starts on agricultural or pasture lands and spreads quickly on nearby forests," said Pieter van Lierop, an FAO expert on forest fire management.

Problem Solution:
Education is one of the factors that can help to prevent fires due to the fact that humans are the one that can manage the land to avoid a forest fire.

Burning agricultural waste early in the dry season before the surrounding landscape gets too dry and avoiding burning during high winds will help avoid big wildfires.

Goal:
Until now we have been researching and sharing information about the consequences of having a forest fire and how we can prevent it. We are also looking for the ways that we can help to prevent forest fire.

The five of us have been working in a model using Starlogo TNG where we can show the forest with the entire ecosystem and then how the fire devastates the environment. In another section we are planning to show how we can prevent it, as well as how we can help.

References:
http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/88903/icode/ http://www.magazine.vela.Edu/exclusives/reduce-fire-risk/ http://www.borealforest.org/world/innova/fire_prevention.htm http://www.fao.org/forestra/firemanagment/ http://www.com/how-2662834-preven-fireforest.htm http://www.magazine.ucla.edu/exclusives/reduce_fire_risk/

Interim Comments
Introduction

Hello Team 96. My name is Peter Yanke and I have been involved with the Super Computing Challenge for 7 years or more. I am an entrepreneur with 20 plus years of experience in computers and Internet based projects and companies.

Project Notes

Your project deals with a great topic and Forest Fire Prevention is something that can always be improved on. It seems a little bit broad for a computational model. Determining how education will effect a fire through a computer model is difficult, but not impossible. You may consider adding in variables that show what people know about fire prevention. Not sure how you could do this, but perhaps people in the burn region would have a number that corresponds to their level of fire prevention knowledge?

I see that you have a large team and a large group of support people so make sure you use them as much as possible. A good presentation is a team effort and you have what looks like a good one.

Face to Face Evaluation

Remember that you have a face to face evaluation coming up in February, which may be a good time to get some additional direction and focus for your project.

Summary

Remember to focus on getting a working model and producing reliable results. I am looking forward to seeing what your final presentation shows us. Let me know if I can be of any help at all.