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.
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.3.5 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).
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.

2. What other countries in Asia have waterfalls and how do their largest waterfalls compare in size to Thailand’s Black Water Waterfall?
© Apisit Sriputtirut/Alamy
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 other countries in Asia have waterfalls and how do their largest waterfalls compare in size to Thailand’s Black Water Waterfall?
In English, it’s the Black Water Waterfall, presumed to be the largest in Thailand, beginning some 820 feet up the cliff. A common anglicized pronunciation of the falls in Thai is Nam Tok Thi Lo Su. It’s part of the Mae Klong River, and the falls portion runs through the Umphang Wildlife Sanctuary on the western edge of Thailand near Myanmar.
The falls are most dynamic during the rainy season (June to November) when the volume of water is at its peak. However, the rainy season means most of the roads to the falls are closed, so hiking in or rafting down the river are the only ways to see this beautiful scene in person.
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 other countries in Asia have waterfalls and how do their largest waterfalls compare in size to Thailand’s Black Water Waterfall? 1
Map Search
Find Asia on a map and Thailand within it. What other countries do you see in Asia? 2
Web Search
How many different countries are in Asia? How many of these countries have waterfalls? 3
What are a few of the most famous waterfalls in the world? How many of these are in Asia? 4
What is the largest waterfall in Asia? Where is it? How does it compare in size to Black Water Waterfall? 5
What are some different ways to measure the size of waterfalls? Why might two different waterfalls both be considered “the largest” in a particular country or continent?
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 other countries in Asia have waterfalls and how do their largest waterfalls compare in size to Thailand’s Black Water Waterfall? 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 other countries in Asia have waterfalls and how do their largest waterfalls compare in size to Thailand’s Black Water Waterfall? 1
Map Search
Find Asia on a map and Thailand within it. What other countries do you see in Asia? 2
Web Search
How many different countries are in Asia? How many of these countries have waterfalls? 3
What are a few of the most famous waterfalls in the world? How many of these are in Asia? 4
What is the largest waterfall in Asia? Where is it? How does it compare in size to Black Water Waterfall? 5
What are some different ways to measure the size of waterfalls? Why might two different waterfalls both be considered “the largest” in a particular country or continent?
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 other countries in Asia have waterfalls and how do their largest waterfalls compare in size to Thailand’s Black Water Waterfall? 1
Map Search
Find Asia on a map and Thailand within it. What other countries do you see in Asia?
(Possible queries: “Bing/Maps: Asia”, “Bing/Images: map of Asia”).
Example found here:
Students should zoom in on the map they’ve found until they can see Thailand and identify a few other countries within Asia. Answers will vary but may include China, Russia, Iran, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Mongolia, among others.

8. What other countries in Asia have waterfalls and how do their largest waterfalls compare in size to Thailand’s Black Water Waterfall? 2
Web Search
How many different countries are in Asia? How many of these countries have waterfalls?
(Possible queries: “how many countries are in Asia?”, “list of countries in Asia”, “how many countries in Asia have waterfalls?”, “list of countries with waterfalls”, “what countries have waterfalls?”).
From
There are 52 countries in Asia, the largest and most populated continent in the world.
A complete list of countries with waterfalls can be found here:
Students should look up Asia in this list of waterfalls and find that the following Asian countries have waterfalls in them: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia (Siberia), Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. In other words, 23 of 52 Asian countries have waterfalls (at least according to this source).

9. What other countries in Asia have waterfalls and how do their largest waterfalls compare in size to Thailand’s Black Water Waterfall? 3
Web Search
What are a few of the most famous waterfalls in the world? How many of these are in Asia?
(Possible queries: “most famous waterfalls”, “best waterfalls in the world”).
Answers will vary. Students should gather information from a list of notable waterfalls, such as the one found here: and note which of these waterfalls are in Asia (in this example, 5 of the 15 “best” waterfalls listed can be found in Asia: Yinlianzhuitan Waterfalls in China, The Shifen Waterfall in Taiwan, the Balaa Gorge Waterfall in Lebanon, Huangguoshu Waterfalls in China, and Detian Falls in Vietnam). If students aren’t sure whether a particular location is in Asia, they can use the Bing Search Bar to find it on a map.

10. What other countries in Asia have waterfalls and how do their largest waterfalls compare in size to Thailand’s Black Water Waterfall? 4
Web Search
What is the largest waterfall in Asia? Where is it? How does it compare in size to Black Water Waterfall?
(Possible queries: “what is the tallest waterfall in Asia?”, “highest waterfall in Asia”).
From
Shōmyō Falls are located in the town of Tateyama, Toyama prefecture, Japan. Shōmyō-daki is the highest waterfall in Japan at 350 m (1,148 ft).
From the image description, students know that Thailand’s Black Water Waterfall is 820 feet tall. They can then create an equation to compare its size to the height of the Shōmyō Falls at 1,148 feet.
1,148 feet – 820 feet = 328 feet
In other words, Black Water Waterfall in Thailand is approximately 328 feet shorter than Shōmyō Falls , the tallest waterfall in Asia.

11. What other countries in Asia have waterfalls and how do their largest waterfalls compare in size to Thailand’s Black Water Waterfall? 5
Web Search
What are some different ways to measure the size of waterfalls? Why might two different waterfalls both be considered “the largest” in a particular country or continent?
(Possible queries: “biggest waterfalls in the world”, “largest waterfalls in the world”).
Students should think critically about why there may be controversy surrounding what exactly is the biggest waterfall in the world. A search to find an answer may reveal that people measure waterfalls differently. For example, the tallest waterfall is not necessarily the same as the biggest, if you factor in the amount of water or width of the waterfall.

12. What other countries in Asia have waterfalls and how do their largest waterfalls compare in size to Thailand’s Black Water Waterfall?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question. Students should list a few of the other Asian countries with waterfalls that they have found (according to Wikipedia, 23 out of 52 Asian countries have some kind of notable waterfall). They can also do a scan of this list of Asian waterfalls ( to get a sense of their size compared to Thailand’s Black Water Waterfall. They should find that Black Water Waterfall is of a pretty average size as far as Asian waterfalls go, and, as they solved for, about 330 feet shorter than the tallest waterfall in Asia. Students should also recognize that factors besides height can go into the ranking of waterfalls’ size, for example, width and volume of water.