To Build A Fire

From OER Commons Wiki

Jack London's "To Build A Fire" is about man and nature. The effects of extreme cold (-70F) on the human body are described as a man underestimates nature on his trek to camp in the Yukon. This story was recommended to my on the NSTA listserve and inspired me to make a short story assignment that encourages students to think about nature and the effects of cold on the human body.

Contents 1 Lesson 2 Related Links & Further Information 3 Links: 4 More Stories

Lesson

Introduction: "To Build a Fire" is a short story by American author Jack London. The famous version of this story was published in 1908. There are only two characters in "To Build a Fire," a man and a dog, although some count Nature as a third character. In the story, Nature is portrayed as the antagonist – the foe against which the man is pitted for survival. However, Nature doesn't act deliberately – it simply is, and it is the man's own folly and arrogance that causes his harm.

The story can be downloaded, read online, or spoken aloud from loudit.com.

Objective “To Build a Fire” takes place in the Yukon at -70F, much colder than we experience in Minnesota. Write a 1-page short story about living one day in Minnesota’s winter. You story must remain as factual as possible and include elements of nature and the human body.

Sites such as WebMD are a good resource for details about frostbite and hypothermia.

Grading Your paper will be graded on the following criteria. Each item is worth 4 points with a maximum total of 28 points.

Complete the grading rubric below and stable this sheet to the back of your paper.

Cover

1. Title and your name
2. Color Illustration

Story

1. 1 pages in length
2. Included element of nature
3. Information on the effects of cold on the human body – at least 2 facts

Writing Style

1. Spelling
2. Grammar & sentence structure
3. Typed double-spaced 12pt arial

Related Links & Further Information

Weather

A video on how the Inuit forecast the weather

How to build your own Backyard weather station

What to wear in cold weather

Look-up regional weather from Weather Underground

How Modern Weather Forecasting Works

Cold and the Human Body

An interactive lesson about how the Body Breaks down in cold weather

An animation about Blood Flow and Thermoregulation

More True Stories

Movie - Snowbound: The Jim and Jennifer Stolpa Story

True Stories from another science teacher

Links:

1. Look up weather - http://www.wunderground.com/US/Region/Midwest/MaxTemp1Day.html
2. What to wear OER - http://www.teachengineering.org/view_lesson.php?url=http://www.teachengineering.com/collection/cub_/lessons/cub_earth/cub_earth_lesson3.xml
3. Backyard weather station - http://www.teachengineering.org/view_activity.php?url=http://www.teachengineering.com/collection/cub_/activities/cub_weather/cub_weather_lesson04_activity1.xml
4. Modern Weather forcasting - http://www.teachengineering.org/view_lesson.php?url=http://www.teachengineering.com/collection/cub_/lessons/cub_weather/cub_weather_lesson04.xml
5. Weather and Atmosphere curriculum - http://www.teachengineering.org/view_curricularunit.php?url=http://www.teachengineering.com/collection/cub_/curricular_units/cub_weather/cub_weather_curricularunit.xml
6. Body Breakdowns, interactive guide on how the body fails in cold weather - http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.stru.bodybreak/
7. Blood Flow and Thermoregulation - interactive animation about how the body copes with cold - http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/lsps07.sci.life.reg.heatexchange/
8. Video about sleddogs - http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/vtl07.la.ws.process.sleddogs/
9. Inuit and predicting weather - http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ean08.sci.life.eco.unpredictability/
10. Oral traditions - http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/echo07.lan.stories.totem/
11. Interactive arctic atlas - http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ipy07.sci.life.eco.arcticatlas/

More Stories

Stories 1 and 2 provided by Leslie Gushwa

Story 1:

We were again on a backpacking trip, this time with a large group of friends. We took the first day easy and camped short of Paiute Pass into the Humphrey's Basin area. We all got up early in the morning, but some of us took more time to get ready! Our dear friends, we will call them the SNAILS spent time getting ready. Mr. Snail shaved, Mrs. Snail repacked her pack a couple of times looking for toothpaste,etc. Since we had invited them to come on the trip, we waited for them...a long time, everyone else went on to the final campsite at Tomahawk Lake. Well we finall starte dup toward the pass, taking breaks for water and snacks, we were much more experienced backpackers at this time (probably 1982). The rule of the "road" for hiking is that if stock, horses, mules, llamas, are on the trail, you must get off the trail as far as you can so that the animals, especially horses, do not get spooked. We heard some horses coming during one of our breaks, so we just move a bit more off trail. Then a wrangler came through on a horse, he was holding the reins of a following horse. On the horse behind was a man. He looked VERY bad. His skin was literally pale gray, he had salt dried around his mouth, and he was tied to the saddle horn so he would not fall off. Behind him on another horse was a woman, she kept calling "Alan, Alan, are you alright?" But Alna wasn't talking anymore. Another wrangler followed with some pack animals trailing behind. My frien Mr. Snail had gone to medical schho, but during his last year decided not to become a doctor after all. So he and I discussed what was wrong with Alan. We decided that his major problem was altitude sickness. His case was so extreme that he was probably already outside the autoregulatory zone.

When we came out of the high country a week later, I asked about Alan at the ranger station. The ranger said that he had died shortly after they got him to the hospital. It turned out that Alan and his wife had been dropped off by the packers at high altitude, around 10,000-11,000 ft. Then when the packers came back to pick them up some days later, Alan was in bad shape.

1. What was the problem with Alan's trip?
2. What should the packers have done differently?
3. What is the autoregulatory zone?

1. You should not go into the backcountry if you cannot walk yourself out! Things happen.
2. The packer should have riden out as fast as possible to get a helicopter for the very ill Alan.
3. The zone is the range of body temperatures, blood chemistry, pressures, etc that we live in. It is incredibly risky to get outside of it, even with good medical care it is hard to save a person once the go outside.

Story 2:

It was our second backpacking trip ever, so we were not too skilled yet! We were still buying premade freezedried meals (and they were none too wonderful in those days, 1977). We went in at Agnew Meadows right behind Mammoth Mountain Ski area and nearby Devil's Postpile in the California Sierra Nevada Mountains. We were late the night before so we were all really tired when we started out that day. As we climbed we started getting buffeted by high winds. Later we saw people coming downhill saying the winds were too high for them....we kept going (hmm, maybe not too smart, huh?). I was almost blown off my feet, oops, I think the winds were about 40 MPH (Yikes), Two of the guys,( there were 6 guys [including my husband] and me, we entitled the trip Snow White and the six dwarves) were blown down in front of me.

It took us awhile to get near where we would camp, longer than expected and later too,and was getting cold. We took our packs off and looked for a likely place to camp, the two skinniest guys (Randy and Wes, who were also blown over and had the least sleep the night before) stayed with the packs, they were to tired to help search out a site. We found a site and went to get our backpacks, Randy and Wess would not move, hmmm first signs of trouble.

So we put up our tents and our friend Richard started dinner, no one was too concerned about Randy and Wes, but I WAS! I had to force my husband to help me (he said they would come eventually) get their backpacks, then set up their sleeping bags in the tent we were sharing with them. Then again I had to force my husband, the other guys wouldn't help (DO YOU SEE A THEME HERE, NOT TOO RATIONAL, HUH...) to go get the two guys from the trail. They were kind of dozing , leaning against some rocks, sitting on the very cold ground. They did not want to come with us, butt I forced them to. We more or less dragged them to the camp. Then they sat on the ground, they were pretty unresponsive, I was getting worried, but NO ONE else was, hmmmm....wonder why??? The dinner was ready, so we tried to eat, since it was hot. But it was horrible, our friend had not rehydrated it adequately, to this day I cannot eat Alpine Chicken from Alpenaire. We had to bury the food, not me though, I was busy trying to get the guys in bed, we (my husband, Greg, and I) managed to get the guys fully clothed in the tent in their bags, then we got in our bags and huddled around them, by now my husband was worried too. All the others had gone to their own beds, unconcerned! We were able to get the guys warmed up and we sort of slept that night. The next day the two guys felt better, as did we all and the trip continued.

1. So who had hypothermis? We ALL did. Disorientation, lack of judgement, etc are all signs of hypothermia. The two guys could have died if left outside.
2. Why was I the only one who was concerned?? Well I was the only female and we do have an extra layer of insulation! Also as a science teacher I was a bit more aware of hypothermis and recognized the signs.