Activity Description Run a simulation of how a fire will spread through a stand of trees, learning about probability and chaos. Parameters: Probability that a tree will set fire to each of its eight neighbors.

Shodor Interactivate utilizes JavaScript technology, you must enable it to effectively use our site.

If you wish to leave JavaScript disabled, you may attempt to view the activity. Here is some additional information about this activity that may not be accessible without JavaScript.

Directable Fire!!

Place in mathematics curriculum:

• demonstrate randomness
• motivate the ideas of chaos
• demonstrate the basic concepts of probability

This activity allows the user to see the results of a fire if a forest is densely planted in a rectangular grid when directional probabilities are set. This activity would work well in mixed ability groups of two for about thirty to forty-five minutes if you use the exploration questions and ten to fifteen minutes otherwise.

Preparations for this activity:

• give implicit directions on what they are to do. For example, "Today we are going to run a set of experiments and answer the questions on the worksheet..."
• answer the question "What decimal will make the trees burn 3/4(some fraction) of the time?"
• discuss decimals, percents, and fractions