As with the other pilot tests conducted within the scope of the EduFire Toolkit, the objective of the Portuguese pilot test was to assess the Challenges and Units created within the project’s scope.
To that end, ISA’s team reached out to Miguel Alves, a teacher at the Miraflores School (Lisbon area) and invited him to test Challenges of his choosing. To everyone’s joy he accepted the challenge to test the Challenges. He opted to work with Preparedness (Unit 5).
For two months, working two hours per week, he worked with two classes of the Visual Education and the Technological Education courses in the test, corresponding to around 50 students.
Using the Units as background material and the technical support from ISA’s team, Miguel guided his students in creating a Safe Village, as current Portuguese laws define.
The process started by debating and understanding what a Safe Village was. The driving questions were: How can I create a Wildfire Safe Village? What are the prevention rules I should follow?
After a research period, the students agreed on the most important wildfire safety features to represent in a terrain model. They were:
- Clear the land of fuel (vegetation), at least 50 meters around the homes
- Move trees away from homes and electricity poles.
- Keep land clean of fuel (excess vegetation)
Next, the students divided the work among themselves, deciding who would do each feature in the terrain model, such as houses, the terrain, trees, etc.
The final terrain model not only looked impressive but was also very educational, as it had a legend explaining all its key features.
Here are some examples:
1 – Strategic water reservoirs for wildfire fighting.
5 – Danger! Fuels (vegetation) less than 50 m away from the houses.
You can see the entire description here: (Miguel’s presentation)
The Safe Village terrain model was part of an exhibition that took place between May and June at a local commercial centre as part of children’s day celebrations. This not only showcases and recognises the great work done by the students but also helps other young people to become aware of the need to be wildfire-prepared.
To conclude, the students were actively engaged throughout the Challenge, and most showed a genuine interest in the tasks it comprised.
We want to express our gratitude to Miguel Alves, who aided us not only with the EduFire Toolkit project tasks but also helped future generations be better informed and prepared to deal with wildfires.
