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.
Ja'Dell Davis is a Los Angeles native who currently lives in New York City. She works in the Youth Services Department at the Educational Alliance as the Assistant Director for Higher Education Initiatives, where she specifically oversees college prep programming for high school seniors, and academic enrichment programming for middle school students. Ja’Dell previously taught high school in Philadelphia public schools, and implemented college access programming at Chester High School in Chester, Pennsylvania. Ja’Dell received her B.A. from Swarthmore College with a special major in History and Educational Studies, and a minor in Black Studies. She completed her M.S.Ed in Secondary School Education at the University of Pennsylvania. This fall, she will begin her doctoral studies in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition to her work in the education field, Ja’Dell is a dancer, musician, avid people watcher, and Scrabble enthusiast.
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: Reading Informational Text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.2 Determine a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.3 Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text (e.g., through examples or anecdotes).

2. What would an experienced hiker need to remember in order to successfully complete the West Coast Trail?
© Sergio Ballivian/Tandem Stock
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. What would an experienced hiker need to remember in order to successfully complete the West Coast Trail?
This is no day hike. The staff of Parks Canada recommends only experienced campers tackle the West Coast Trail of Vancouver Island, as the steep climbs and treacherous crossings mean a commitment of about one week if you’d like to hike the whole thing.
But for those who dare and succeed, the wilderness rewards incredible views of the dense temperate rainforest, and at the northern end of the trail, the wild surf of the Pacific coast.
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. What would an experienced hiker need to remember in order to successfully complete the West Coast Trail? 1
Map Search
Where is Vancouver Island? 2
Web Search
What does hiking consist of? 3
Thinking
Why would only an experienced hiker embark upon this trail? What may be some dangers hikers would find on this trail? 4
What would an experienced hiker need to remember in order to successfully complete the West Coast Trail?
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. What would an experienced hiker need to remember in order to successfully complete the West Coast Trail? 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. What would an experienced hiker need to remember in order to successfully complete the West Coast Trail? 1
Map Search
Where is Vancouver Island? 2
Web Search
What does hiking consist of? 3
Thinking
Why would only an experienced hiker embark upon this trail? What may be some dangers hikers would find on this trail? 4
What would an experienced hiker need to remember in order to successfully complete the West Coast Trail?
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. What would an experienced hiker need to remember in order to successfully complete the West Coast Trail? 1
Map Search
Where is Vancouver Island?
Using the “maps” link on the Bing search page, and the search term “Vancouver Island”, find the location here (

8. What would an experienced hiker need to remember in order to successfully complete the West Coast Trail? 2
Web Search
What does hiking consist of?
(Possible queries: “what is hiking”)
The site ABC-of-Hiking ( provides the following summary of what hiking consists of:
Walking is a recreational activity and sport. Especially among those with sedentary occupations, hiking is a natural exercise that promotes physical fitness, is economical and convenient, and requires no special equipment. Because the hiker can walk as far as he wants, there is no physical strain unless he walks among hills or mountains.

9. What would an experienced hiker need to remember in order to successfully complete the West Coast Trail? 3
Thinking
Why would only an experienced hiker embark upon this trail? What may be some dangers hikers would find on this trail?
Students may gather from the information accompanying the main image that the trail is considered dangerous, for its length and for some of the terrain that a hiker would encounter. Some of the dangers that students may identify include steep hills, rocky and uneven paths, dangerous animals, and other natural elements that could be dangerous for humans.

10. What would an experienced hiker need to remember in order to successfully complete the West Coast Trail? 4
Web Search
What would an experienced hiker need to remember in order to successfully complete the West Coast Trail?
(Possible queries: “hiking safety”)
The site HikingBeginner ( provides and elaborates on safety tips for hikers, including:
Don't travel alone
Know where you're going
Take some basic gear
Take basic provisions
Exercise common sense

11. What would an experienced hiker need to remember in order to successfully complete the West Coast Trail?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question.