Activity Description Students run a simulation of how a fire will spread through a stand of trees, learning about probability and chaos. Parameters: Forest density, wind direction, size of forest.

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Place in mathematics curriculum:

This activity can be used to:

• 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 spreading through a forest. The user can oberserve how properties like wind speed, wind direction, and forest density affect how the fire spreads. This activity would work well in mixed ability groups of two to four for about fifteen to twenty minutes if you use the exploration questions and ten minutes otherwise.

Preparations for this activity:

• give implicit directions on what they are to do. For example, "Today we are going to study the nature of forest fires. We are going to determine the effect of different conditions on the outcome of a forest fire. The conditions we are going to study are wind direction, wind speed, and forest density ..."
• discuss density, speed, direction, ...