Teacher Guide This lesson is designed to teach kids to ask a critical thinking question that you can’t just put into a search box to solve. To do that, we encourage them with smaller questions that search can help them answer. Make sure that you read the notes for each slide: they not only give you teaching tips but also provide answers and hints so you can help the kids if they are having trouble. Remember, you can always send feedback to the Bing in the Classroom team at BingInTheClassroom@Microsoft.com. You can learn more about the program at bing.com/classroom and follow the daily lessons on our Partners In Learning site. Want to extend today’s lesson? Consider using Skype in the Classroom to arrange for your class to chat with another class in today’s location. And if you are using Windows 8, you can also use the Bing apps to learn more about this location and topic; the Travel and News apps in particular make great teaching tools. Nell Bang-Jensen is a teacher and theater artist living in Philadelphia, PA. Her passion for arts education has led her to a variety of roles including developing curriculum for Philadelphia Young Playwrights and teaching at numerous theaters and schools around the city. She works with playwrights from ages four to ninety on developing new work and is especially interested in alternative literacies and theater for social change. A graduate of Swarthmore College, she currently works in the Artistic Department of the Wilma Theater and, in addition to teaching, is a freelance actor and dramaturg. In 2011, Nell was named a Thomas J. Watson Fellow and spent her fellowship year traveling to seven countries studying how people get their names. This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: Measurement & Data CCSS.Math.Content.4.MD.A.1 Know relative sizes of measurement units within one system of units including km, m, cm; kg, g; lb, oz.; l, ml; hr, min, sec. Within a single system of measurement, express measurements in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Record measurement equivalents in a two-column table. For example, know that 1 ft is 12 times as long as 1 in. Express the length of a 4 ft snake as 48 in. Generate a conversion table for feet and inches listing the number pairs (1, 12), (2, 24), (3, 36), ... CCSS.Math.Content.4.MD.A.2 Use the four operations to solve word problems involving distances, intervals of time, liquid volumes, masses of objects, and money, including problems involving simple fractions or decimals, and problems that require expressing measurements given in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Represent measurement quantities using diagrams such as number line diagrams that feature a measurement scale.
What are three different ways to express how much higher Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park is than its neighboring canyons? © AirPano Having this up as kids come in is a great settle down activity. You can start class by asking them for thoughts about the picture or about ideas on how they could solve the question of the day.
What are three different ways to express how much higher Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park is than its neighboring canyons? Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park has a higher elevation than neighboring canyons – a full 1,000 feet above nearby Zion National Park. With that elevation come cooler temperatures and more precipitation, so heavy snow isn’t uncommon inside Bryce Canyon this time of year. The park doesn’t close just because of the white stuff. Visitors can enjoy cross-country skiing, star-gazing events, and even guided snowshoe hikes by the light of the full moon. Need to challenge your expectations of the Southwest? Go enjoy the snow in Bryce Canyon. Depending on time, you can either have students read this silently to themselves, have one of them read out loud, or read it out loud yourself.
What are three different ways to express how much higher Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park is than its neighboring canyons? 1 Web Search/Thinking We know that Bryce Canyon National Park is 1,000 feet higher than nearby Zion National Park. How would you use words to describe what kind of difference this is? Is it a large difference? How might thinking about human height help you get a sense of this? 2 What is one other unit used to commonly measure height? What is the difference between this unit and feet? How could you make a conversion table that expresses this difference? 3 What is the difference between feet and inches? How could you convert one unit to another? 4 What is the difference between feet and miles? How could you convert one unit to the other? 5 What is the difference between feet and meters? How could you convert one unit to the other? There are a couple of ways to use this slide, depending on how much technology you have in your classroom. You can have students find answers on their own, divide them into teams to have them do all the questions competitively, or have each team find the answer to a different question and then come back together. If you’re doing teams, it is often wise to assign them roles (one person typing, one person who is in charge of sharing back the answer, etc.)
What are three different ways to express how much higher Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park is than its neighboring canyons? 5 Minutes You can adjust this based on how much time you want to give kids. If a group isn’t able to answer in 5 minutes, you can give them the opportunity to update at the end of class or extend time.
What are three different ways to express how much higher Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park is than its neighboring canyons? 1 Web Search/Thinking We know that Bryce Canyon National Park is 1,000 feet higher than nearby Zion National Park. How would you use words to describe what kind of difference this is? Is it a large difference? How might thinking about human height help you get a sense of this? 2 What is one other unit used to commonly measure height? What is the difference between this unit and feet? How could you make a conversion table that expresses this difference? 3 What is the difference between feet and inches? How could you convert one unit to another? 4 What is the difference between feet and miles? How could you convert one unit to the other? 5 What is the difference between feet and meters? How could you convert one unit to the other?
What are three different ways to express how much higher Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park is than its neighboring canyons? 1 Web Search/Thinking We know that Bryce Canyon National Park is 1,000 feet higher than nearby Zion National Park. How would you use words to describe what kind of difference this is? Is it a large difference? How might thinking about human height help you get a sense of this? (Possible queries: “how tall is the average human?”, “Bing online calculator”). This question is designed to help students get a sense of what 1,000 feet actually looks like. It may help them to search to find the height of the average human adult. For example, from http://lsned.com/facts/human-height/: Currently, the average height of men worldwide measures in at 5 feet, 9 inches. They could estimate this amount as being close to 6 feet. They should then think about how many people it would take to get to 1,000 feet as a way of having a sense of that distance. For example, one way of thinking about it is, how many of their parents would they need to stack on top of each other to reach the height of Bryce Canyon National Park? They can search for an online calculator (for example, the Bing calculator found here: http://www.bing.com/search?q=online+calculator&qs=n&form=QBLH&pq=online+calculator&sc=8-14&sp=-1&sk=&ghc=1&cvid=47740dabf9c043f3ba113aefbf209eac) and divide 1,000 by 6. They should find it would take about 167 humans to get to this amount. In other words, they might describe it as being “much higher” than nearby Zion National Park. Exact answers will vary.
What are three different ways to express how much higher Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park is than its neighboring canyons? 2 Web Search/Thinking What is one other unit used to commonly measure height? What is the difference between this unit and feet? How could you make a conversion table that expresses this difference? (Possible queries: “for kids, what units are commonly used to measure height?”, “difference between x and feet”). Students should begin by searching for units that are commonly used to measure height (or go off of what they’ve heard before). For example, they may look at a list such as the one found here: http://www.ducksters.com/kidsmath/units_of_measurement_glossary.php, and choose to use yards in comparison to feet. They should then search for the difference between yards and feet, for example, from http://www.ehow.com/info_8583688_difference-between-yards-feet.html: A yard is equal to 3 feet. Yards are usually measured by a yardstick, which equals 1 yard. One yard is the approximate length of a baseball bat. Based on this information, students should then create a conversion table that compares feet to yards. They can use the Bing calculator online to do so (they should understand that each time, they’ll be dividing the number of feet by 3 to equal 1 yard). For example: Feet Yards 3 1 6 2 9 3 12 4 30 10 300 100 900 300 1,000 333
What are three different ways to express how much higher Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park is than its neighboring canyons? 3 Web Search/Thinking What is the difference between feet and inches? How could you convert one unit to another? (Possible queries: “for kids, what is the difference between feet and inches?”, “for kids, how to convert feet to inches?”). From http://www.convertunits.com/from/inches/to/feet: How many inches in 1 foot? The answer is 12. Students should understand that because there are 12 inches in 1 foot, they should multiply the number of feet by 12 in order to find the number of inches. (They should understand that because inches are smaller, it will end up being a bigger number). They could also divide the number of inches by 12 in order to get back to the number of feet.
What are three different ways to express how much higher Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park is than its neighboring canyons? 4 Web Search/Thinking What is the difference between feet and miles? How could you convert one unit to the other? (Possible queries: “for kids, what is the difference between feet and miles?”, “for kids, how to convert feet to miles?”). From http://www.metric-conversions.org/length/miles-to-feet.htm: Miles: ft = mi * 5280.0 Students should understand that because there are 5,280 feet in 1 mile, they would divide the number of feet by 5,280 in order to find the number of miles. (They should understand that because miles are larger, it will end up being a smaller number). They could also multiply the number of miles by 5,280 in order to get back to the number of feet.
What are three different ways to express how much higher Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park is than its neighboring canyons? 5 Web Search/Thinking What is the difference between feet and meters? How could you convert one unit to the other? (Possible queries: “for kids, what is the difference between feet and meters?”, “for kids, how to convert feet to meters?”). From http://www.metric-conversions.org/length/feet-to-meters.htm: In 1959 the international yard and pound agreement (between the United States and countries of the Commonwealth of Nations) defined a yard as being exactly 0.9144 metres, which in turn defined the foot as being exactly 0.3048 metres (304.8 mm). Students should understand that because there are 0.3048 feet in 1 meter, they would multiply the number of feet by 0.3048 in order to find the number of meters. (They should understand that because meters are larger, it will end up being a smaller number).
What are three different ways to express how much higher Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park is than its neighboring canyons? Students should pull together the information they have gathered to describe this distance in a variety of ways. They should understand that a 1,000 feet difference is quite a large one, when you consider a sense of scale based on human height. There are many ways they might describe this 1,000 foot difference and answers will vary. For example: -Bryce Canyon National Park is approximately 1,000 feet higher than its neighboring canyons. -Bryce Canyon National Park is approximately 167 humans higher than its neighboring canyons. (1,000 / 167) -Bryce Canyon National Park is approximately 333 yards higher than its neighboring canyons. (1,000 / 3) -Bryce Canyon National Park is approximately 12,000 inches higher than its neighboring canyons. (1,000 x 12) -Bryce Canyon National Park is approximately 0.19 miles higher than its neighboring canyons. (1,000 / 5,280) -Bryce Canyon National Park is approximately 304.8 meters higher than its neighboring canyons. (1,000 x .3048)