Fire in Florida's Ecosystems Curriculum Revision and Educator Training Program
Florida Division of Forestry

Since 2000, Pandion Systems has managed the Fire in Florida Ecosystems curriculum program, which includes promoting and distributing the curriculum through teacher training, and updating the curriculum and format based on teacher assessment of the program. The program, which has trained over 2,100 teachers, is internationally recognized as a successful model for fire ecology and wildfire prevention training and education.

Pandion created and implemented an initial needs assessment of Florida school districts and educators to identify program needs, capacity-building opportunities, and the educational niche the curriculum could fill. The assessment also led to design of a curriculum package that delivered key fire ecology messages and activities in a form that was most useful to educators.

Comparisons of pre and post training surveys indicate statistically significant improvements in knowledge and attitudes among trainees. Final telephone survey evaluation results indicate a 90% adoption rate for the program in the classroom. Following program evaluation, Pandion made recommendations for curriculum improvement in order for the program to be easily and readily used by educators.

As a part of the project Pandion correlated all the activities with State and Federal education standards and received additional funding to rewrite the curriculum, make it web-based, and continue training educators. View the 2005 Final Report >>>

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Key Personnel
Christine Denny, MS
Peter Colverson, MA
Susan Marynowski, MS
Karen Hill

Period of Performance
March 2000 to Current

Location
Florida