Proposed Solution #3 from Housing Developer – Stop prescribed burns and continue with proposed housing development Competing Idea A – Prescribed burns are Competing Idea B – Prescribed burns are detrimental detrimental to species diversity (richness and to housing developments relative abundance) Evidence Evidence (eMammal and Google Earth Data focus) (Internet research focus) Students can use the Fire Data and Tables tab in the Based on the provided readings, students should see Classroom Data Excel file to figure out which habitat that there are some risks associated with prescribed had the most years with fire. Then, they can burns, but they are heavily monitored and managed compare this to species diversity calculations per (e.g., not done during periods of hot/dry weather, habitat from Activity 3. They will see that announced to landowners, emergency action plans). pine/sandhill have the most years with fire as well as Therefore, this idea can be refuted based on the the lowest Shannon Index, but a relatively high prescribed fire practices in Florida. However, richness. They can also see the relationship between students may find other perspectives and cases in a burns and habitat from the Google Earth Layers. broader internet search. Be sure their answers are However, without more years of data or knowing from valid sources and they think about their about the diversity of pine/sandhill habitats that do application to Florida. not have fires at all, this doesn’t necessarily mean that fires are reducing diversity. In fact, they should see from their readings that fires tend to be beneficial for this habitat. So, based on the data alone, it is difficult to refute this idea, but based on other research and internet sources, it can be refuted. Evaluation of Solution 3 - Do you support or refute the proposed solution and why?
Proposed Solution #3 from Housing Developer – Stop prescribed burns and continue with proposed housing development Competing Idea A – Prescribed burns are detrimental to species diversity (richness and relative abundance) Competing Idea B – Prescribed burns are detrimental to housing developments Evidence (eMammal and Google Earth Data focus) Students can use the Fire Data and Tables tab in the Classroom Data Excel file to figure out which habitat had the most years with fire. Then, they can compare this to species diversity calculations per habitat from Activity 3. They will see that pine/sandhill have the most years with fire as well as the lowest Shannon Index, but a relatively high richness. They can also see the relationship between burns and habitat from the Google Earth Layers. However, without more years of data or knowing about the diversity of pine/sandhill habitats that do not have fires at all, this doesn’t necessarily mean that fires are reducing diversity. In fact, they should see from their readings that fires tend to be beneficial for this habitat. So, based on the data alone, it is difficult to refute this idea, but based on other research and internet sources, it can be refuted. Evidence (Internet research focus) Based on the provided readings, students should see that there are some risks associated with prescribed burns, but they are heavily monitored and managed (e.g., not done during periods of hot/dry weather, announced to landowners, emergency action plans). Therefore, this idea can be refuted based on the prescribed fire practices in Florida. However, students may find other perspectives and cases in a broader internet search. Be sure their answers are from valid sources and they think about their application to Florida. Evaluation of Solution 3 - Do you support or refute the proposed solution and why?