Students at Kennedy Community School in St. Joseph are experiencing the role of mother nature and fire first hand today.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in close collaboration with St. Cloud Area School District 742 are conducting a Prescribed Fire on a 46-acre parcel of restored prairie adjacent to the Kennedy Community School near St. Joseph. School officials say the fire will start around 11:30 a.m.

The burn will last a couple of hours, with the mop-up completed around 2 p.m. School administrators say the primary goal is to re-introduce fire and follow a natural cycle as this piece of Minnesota’s historic landscape is restored. Kennedy Community School students will watch this process as it is occurring.

The school is planning to incorporate this dramatic event into the learned process as it not only involves biology, but also history, physics, math and language arts.  The U.S. Department of Education recently recognized Kennedy Community School as one of 78 schools nationwide as a Green Ribbon School.