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: Reading Informational Text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.3 Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.5 Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.7 Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how key events occur).

Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water. What are two other animals that can do this and how are they able to? © Paul Benson/fotoLibra 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.

Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water. What are two other animals that can do this and how are they able to? The Oryx of eastern Africa avoids predators by living mostly in a near-desert environment, away from the grassier plains with easier access to water. Lions don’t fare well here in the sandy, hot hills of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, but the Oryx can go days without water.   In the event that an Oryx is faced with a lion attack, it’s not entirely helpless. The Oryx is one of the few grazing animals capable of killing a lion – those long, sharp horns offer a strong defense against the “king of the jungle.” This herd was photographed on the Solio Game Reserve. 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.

Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water. What are two other animals that can do this and how are they able to? 1 Web Search How does the Oryx go without water for days? 2 Why do animals need water? How do animals conserve water? 3 Find a list of animals who live in the desert. Do you have any ideas for how they might conserve water? 4 Map Search Where do you think most desert animals live? What parts of the world are covered by desert? 5 What are some adaptations animals have to conserve water? 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.)

Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water. What are two other animals that can do this and how are they able to? 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.

Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water. What are two other animals that can do this and how are they able to? 1 Web Search How does the Oryx go without water for days? 2 Why do animals need water? How do animals conserve water? 3 Find a list of animals who live in the desert. Do you have any ideas for how they might conserve water? 4 Map Search Where do you think most desert animals live? What parts of the world are covered by desert? 5 What are some adaptations animals have to conserve water? You can ask the students verbally or let one of them come up and insert the answer or show how they got it. This way, you also have a record that you can keep as a class and share with parents, others.

Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water. What are two other animals that can do this and how are they able to? 1 Web Search How does the Oryx go without water for days? (Possible queries: “how does the Oryx survive without water?”, “desert adaptations, Oryx conserving water”) From http://www.edjameson.com/Endangered%20Animals/pages/oryx2.htm: During the heat of the day, Oryx lie down in shady ground where their bodies unload excess heat into the cooler sand. By lying down, less body surface is exposed to drying winds. Other desert adaptations are their white coats which reflect the heat. Oryx's body temperatures can rise to about 113 degrees Fahrenheit without having to pant, which enables them to conserve water. As the animal breathes, respiratory evaporation cools blood on the way to the brain.

Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water. What are two other animals that can do this and how are they able to? 2 Web Search Why do animals need water? How do animals conserve water? (Possible queries: “science for kids, why animals need water”, “why do animals need water?”, “how do animals conserve water”, “animal adaptations water conservation”) From http://magisvarushni.blogspot.com/p/basic-needs-of-humans-and-animals.html: Water is essential to humans and animals. Humans and animals need water to: -maintain the body temperature -transport digested food throughout the body -help in removing waste from the body -help in blood circulation From http://www.ehow.com/info_8178271_animals-conserve-water.html: In some climates, animals have adapted to their environment to conserve water and some can go several days without consuming water. This allows them to survive the desert heat or travel over large distances without needing a water supply. Animals often conserve water by slowing down their bodily processes, but may implement other methods of water conservation to help themselves and their offspring survive.

Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water. What are two other animals that can do this and how are they able to? 3 Web Search Find a list of animals who live in the desert. Do you have any ideas for how they might conserve water? (Possible queries: “animals that live in the desert”, “list of desert animals”) Students should search for a list of animals who live in the desert (such as the one found here: http://www.desertusa.com/animals.html) and think about how some of these animals might conserve water, based on what they already know. For example, they might look at the list and hypothesize that camels carry water in their humps.

Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water. What are two other animals that can do this and how are they able to? 4 Map Search Where do you think most desert animals live? What parts of the world are covered by desert? (Possible queries: “Bing/Images: world map of deserts”, “Bing/Images: “deserts on world map”) Students should first hypothesize where most desert animals live (for example, they may know that many, like the Oryx, live in parts of Africa), and then do an image/map search to find exactly where in the world most deserts can be found. Looking at a world map of deserts (like the one found here: http://www.ei.lehigh.edu/envirosci/weather/bitsofbiomes/images/worlddesertmap.jpg), students should articulate that most desert land in the world is found in Africa and Australia, with some in Asia, South America, and North America as well.

Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water. What are two other animals that can do this and how are they able to? 5 Web Search What are some adaptations animals have to conserve water? (Possible queries: “animal adaptations for conserving water”, “how animals conserve water”) From http://www.ehow.com/info_8409031_adaptations-desert-organisms-conserve-water.html: The long process of evolution helps desert organisms adapt to the desert's hot, arid and dry climate. Certain adaptable skills and bodily mechanisms help desert animals and plants conserve water in their bodies. This is not to say these desert organisms seldom need water; if an animal, for example, goes weeks without water, it will die. However, most desert organisms are able to utilize the water they consume effectively and for a longer period of time. Adaptations may include: -avoiding heat -storing and preserving water -having body parts that dissipate heat -estivation (the biological term for animals that slow their metabolism down during hot months in the year. Estivation is the hot weather equivalent to hibernation; when the months become too hot, the animal slows its metabolism to a point where it essentially sleeps through the months).

Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water Desert animals like the Oryx are able to go for days without water. What are two other animals that can do this and how are they able to? This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question. If necessary, students can do one additional search (Possible queries: “desert animal adaptations to conserve water”, “desert animals that conserve water”) to develop their final answers. To construct their answers, they should use the information they’ve found about specific adaptations, as well as the list of animals that live in the deserts, and where these deserts are found. Answers will vary but may include the Gila Monster, who is able to conserve water by storing it in his tail, or cactus mice who get water by eating fruits and insects.