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.
Diana Herrington has her B.S. and M.A. in mathematics from Cal Poly, SLO. She is currently teaching pre-service teachers curriculum and supervising secondary math student teachers and interns at California State University Fresno. Prior to this she was a 6-12 classroom teacher for 35 years teaching all levels of mathematics. Diana is a Presidential Awardee of Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST), California State Science Fair Coach of the Year, and Central Valley CUE Educator of the Year. She has worked on state assessment committees and has been a member of the California MathematicsTask Force and the California Teacher Advisory Council (CalTAC). Diana’s belief that students can only go as far in science as their mathematics will take them is her driving force for making sure students see and experience mathematics in as many ways as possible.
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: English Language Arts
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 9-10 texts and topics.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts, attending to the precise details of explanations or descriptions.

2. Why is there a need for wildlife refuges?
© Corbis
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. Why is there a need for wildlife refuges?
Here in northern California, in the valley of the Sacramento River, five wildlife refuges and three wildlife management areas comprise the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Together, they make up almost 70,000 acres of wetland and river-bank habitat vital to migratory birds and other wildlife. As an essential portion of the Pacific Flyway – the well-charted passage that migratory birds follow along the Pacific Coast of North America – the Sacramento NWR provides critical habitat for nearly 300 species of waterfowl and other birds. Each season brings a host of new birds, as other species move on, following the call of their specific migration and mating habits.
Even with California’s current drought – one of the worst ever recorded – this past winter the waterfowl count showed 5 to 6 million ducks and geese in these protected wetlands. That’s almost two-thirds of the total waterfowl population that passes through the Pacific Flyway during winter.
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. Why is there a need for wildlife refuges?1
Web Search
For the Pacific Flyway, where are the birds coming from and where are they going to? 2
The Sacramento Wildlife Refuge Complex has four seasons of inhabitants, what are the inhabitants for each of the seasons? 3
What does the Refuge offer the migrating birds? 4
Thinking
During the drought, why are more migrating birds seen at the Refuge? 5
Image Search
Search for images of birds that fly through the wildlife refuge complex.
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. Why is there a need for wildlife refuges?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. Why is there a need for wildlife refuges?1
Web Search
For the Pacific Flyway, where are the birds coming from and where are they going to? 2
The Sacramento Wildlife Refuge Complex has four seasons of inhabitants, what are the inhabitants for each of the seasons? 3
What does the Refuge offer the migrating birds? 4
Thinking
During the drought, why are more migrating birds seen at the Refuge? 5
Image Search
Search for images of birds that fly through the wildlife refuge complex.
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. Why is there a need for wildlife refuges?1
Web Search
For the Pacific Flyway, where are the birds coming from and where are they going to?
(Possible Search Queries: pacific flyway)
Sources
US Fish & Wildlife Service:
California State Parks:
The birds are coming from and going to the Arctic and Patagonia. They don’t always go the entire distance, but they obviously travel as far as the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge.

8. Why is there a need for wildlife refuges?2
Web Search
The Sacramento Wildlife Refuge Complex has four seasons of inhabitants, what are the inhabitants for each of the seasons?
(Possible Search Queries: Sacramento Wildlife Refuge seasons)
Sources
US Fish & Wildlife Service:
California Watchable Wildlife:
Shorebirds and geese arrive in the fall on their way further south, and in the winter geese and ducks are the primary residents. In the spring the shore birds arrive as the geese and ducks leave for their breeding grounds. Along with the shorebirds, there are neotropics birds that arrive in the spring because of the mudflats and vernal pools. In the summer you will see the nonmigratory birds, such as egrets and blackbirds that stay in the ponds and marshlands.

9. Why is there a need for wildlife refuges?3
Web Search
What does the Refuge offer the migrating birds?
(Possible Search Queries: Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge)
Sources
US Fish & Wildlife Service:
US Fish & Wildlife Service:
The Refuge offers the wildlife a safe haven along with wetlands, vernal pools, grasslands and riparian forests as they migrate.

10. Why is there a need for wildlife refuges?4
Thinking
During the drought, why are more migrating birds seen at the Refuge?
During the drought migrating birds are guaranteed water at the refuges, where other regions cannot guarantee water. It is very noticeable during wet years when you go to a refuge and see fewer migrating birds.

11. Why is there a need for wildlife refuges?5
Image Search
Search for images of birds that fly through the wildlife refuge complex.
(Possible Search Queries: Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge)
Sources
Bing:

12. Why is there a need for wildlife refuges?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question.