1. 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 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.
Alice Keeler is a mother of 5 and a teacher in Fresno, California. She has her B.A in Mathematics, M.S. in Educational Media Design and Technology and is currently working on a doctorate in Educational Technology with an emphasis in games and simulations. EdTech speaker, blogger, and presenter. Founder of coffeeEDU, a 1 hour conference event for educators. New Media Consortium Horizon report advisory panel member. High school math teacher for 14 years. Currently teaching pre-service teachers curriculum, instruction and technology at California State University Fresno. Teaches online for Fresno Pacific University in the Masters in Educational Technology. Passionate that kids are not failures, researches gamification in education to increase student motivation.
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: Mathematics
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP1 Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP3 Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP4 Model with mathematics.

2. Discuss slope as it pertains to the Millau Viaduct.
© Patrick Landmann/Science Photo Library
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.

3. Discuss slope as it pertains to the Millau Viaduct.
By measure of its towering masts, the Millau Viaduct in France is currently the tallest bridge in the world. The highest tower of the bridge shoots up 1,125 feet above the Tarn River Valley below. However, those who cross the bridge in a car are crossing only the 12th- tallest bridge deck in the world.
Don’t let that discourage you from paying it a visit, though. Beyond the town of Millau – a village famous for its exquisite glove manufacturing – is a region of southern France known as the birthplace of Roquefort cheese. They had us at “cheese.”
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.

4. Discuss slope as it pertains to the Millau Viaduct.1
Web Search
Mathematically what does slope describe? How do you calculate the slope of an object? 2
Thinking
What are different slopes in the Millau Viaduct? 3
How would you calculate the slope of the support cables on the bridge? 4
Are the support cables on the bridge parallel? How would you determine this? 5
If one set of support cables are positive slope and the other is negative slope are they negations of each 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.)

5. Discuss slope as it pertains to the Millau Viaduct.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.

6. Discuss slope as it pertains to the Millau Viaduct.1
Web Search
Mathematically what does slope describe? How do you calculate the slope of an object? 2
Thinking
What are different slopes in the Millau Viaduct? 3
How would you calculate the slope of the support cables on the bridge? 4
Are the support cables on the bridge parallel? How would you determine this? 5
If one set of support cables are positive slope and the other is negative slope are they negations of each other?
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.

7. Discuss slope as it pertains to the Millau Viaduct.1
Web Search
Mathematically what does slope describe? How do you calculate the slope of an object?
(Possible Search Queries: slope, calculating slope, calculate slope of real objects )
Sources
Wikipedia:
Dictionary.com:
Khan Academy:
E-How:
The slope or gradient of a line is a number that describes both the direction and the steepness of the line. For real life objects there is no pre-set x/y axis. Measuring physically or on a picture the height of an object and it’s width to calculate the length of the height divided by the width.

8. Discuss slope as it pertains to the Millau Viaduct.2
Thinking
What are different slopes in the Millau Viaduct?
The image shows supporting cables that are all at a slant coming from the spires holding up the viaduct to the viaduct itself. The viaduct has a slope itself. Were it perfectly flat the slope would be zero, however it too has a slope that can be calculated. The spires themselves, assuming they are perfectly perpendicular to the viaduct would have an undefined slope, but most likely these too are not perfectly orthogonal.

9. Discuss slope as it pertains to the Millau Viaduct.3
Thinking
How would you calculate the slope of the support cables on the bridge?
Student answers will vary. Students may choose to overlay an x y axis over the graphic to calculate utilizing the slope formula of (y2 - y1)/(x2 - x1). Students may choose to use a ruler to measure the height from the viaduct to the cable attachment on the spire and then measure distance from the spire to where the cable attaches to the viaduct. Slope is proportional, thus the measures from the photograph will be sufficient, not requiring students to measure the viaducts in person.

10. Discuss slope as it pertains to the Millau Viaduct.4
Thinking
Are the support cables on the bridge parallel? How would you determine this?
While it would appear that the cables from each set of support cables are parallel it is likely there are slight variations in the slopes of the cables considering they were installed by people. The amount of variation may indeed be negligible. For any set of cable measuring the slope as was mentioned in question 3 would determine the slopes of the cables, the student would then compare the slopes to see if the cables were parallel and if the cable of different spires were parallel to the previous set of cables.

11. Discuss slope as it pertains to the Millau Viaduct.5
Thinking
If one set of support cables are positive slope and the other is negative slope are they negations of each other?
To determine if the left side of the support cables were a negation of the slopes of the cables on the right side of of the spire the students would need to measure the slopes. Logically a slope of ⅕ is the negation of a slope of -⅕. ⅕ would be up one and to the right 5. -⅕ would be down one and to the right 5. Assuming the cables are equidistant, the run value of to the right 5 would be the same. Assuming the distance of the cables going up the spire are also equidistant and paired at the same point on the spire, but on opposite sides, the absolute value of the rise value would also be the same. However, one cable slopes in an upward direction and the other cable slopes in a downward direction. This assumes that the viaduct itself has a slope of zero. If the viaduct’s slope is not zero then the length of the cables on one side of the spire would have to be longer than the cables on the other side of the spire, thus affecting the value of the slope.

12. Discuss slope as it pertains to the Millau Viaduct.
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question.