Forest Fever is a highly interactive program tailored towards high school students. This CD-ROM provides a basic understanding of balanced forest management, applies critical thinking skills, and focuses on careers in forestry. It includes several activities such as a virtual press conference and a simulation forest that students can manage themselves.

If you wish to participate in a Forest Fever teacher professional or inservice workshop and receive a free Forest Fever CD-ROM, please contact the Forest Resource Education Center at www.njforestrycenter.org or telephone the center at 732-928-2360.

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Environmental, Economic, and Social Messages - Each section of the CD-ROM explains how the forestry profession is dedicated to an active balance between environmental, economic, and social perspectives. A variety of exciting career opportunities is also explored.

 

Press Conference Activities - This activity reinforces learning, challenges common misconceptions about forestry, and highlights yet another helpful skill for a forestry career - public speaking. The screen is designed to look like a press conference, and the user is asked questions from the press which he or she must answer. The correct answers are then highlighted, and the user's scores are save to a file on the computer's desktop so the teacher can view the student's progress.

Management Guidelines - This section gives general guidelines for forest management from the point of view of each host, highlighting typical forestry activities such as harvesting timber, creating wildlife management areas, setting prescribed burns, and building roads. The lesson progresses linearly through each of the 12 icons and features a pause button for full teacher control. This section also allows a teacher or student to choose topics out of sequence and automatically searches the remaining topics and plays any unheard messages.

Balance Message - The balance message includes video of environmental, economic, and social practices. Examples of how to incorporate balance into specific management practices are given. This section also offers management guidelines for common concerns like endangered species, invasive species, wildfire, drought, severe storms, and disease.

Forest Management Activity - Students apply the information they learned in this critical thinking exercise in which 200 trees grow as the user watches and manages. Tools that they can use to manage their forest include: harvesting and planting trees; building trails, roads, and campgrounds; designating wildlife management areas, hunting areas, and buffer zones; and setting a prescribed burn. Critical thinking skills are tested as they make complex decisions like what percentage and age range of the trees they should cut in their forest. They'll also have to manage wildfire, disease, and the presence of endangered species.
© 2005 Interactive Training Media, Inc.