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.
Patrice Berry earned a B. A. in Political Science at Swarthmore College, an M.S.Ed at the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently study college access and completion as a doctoral student at Temple University.  Patrice is currently the Academic Affairs Director at College Track (East Palo Alto), where she manages academic support initiatives designed to promote college access and college completion among first-generation, low-income students.  Ninety-percent of College Track students are accepted to college, and the college graduation rate is 2.5 times higher than the national average.  Prior to joining College Track, Patrice worked for the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania, for whom she designed and implemented college access and career readiness curricula.   Patrice recently married and now lives in Oakland, where she sings at local jam sessions in her free time.
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: Reading: Informational Text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper).

2. How does captive breeding impact the population of oryx in Africa?
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.

3. How does captive breeding impact the population of oryx in Africa?
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.

4. How does captive breeding impact the population of oryx in Africa?1
Web Search
Use your own words to provide a definition of “captive breeding”. 2
Image Search
Find an image that portrays the historical range of oryx. Where else are oryx found? 3
Thinking
Use the image to identify patterns. What changes do you notice? 4
Find a news or blog article about the oryx and captive breeding that might explain the changes you noticed in the image. What does the article say about captive breeding, and its impact on the population or oryx?
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. How does captive breeding impact the population of oryx in Africa?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. How does captive breeding impact the population of oryx in Africa?1
Web Search
Use your own words to provide a definition of “captive breeding”. 2
Image Search
Find an image that portrays the historical range of oryx. Where else are oryx found? 3
Thinking
Use the image to identify patterns. What changes do you notice? 4
Find a news or blog article about the oryx and captive breeding that might explain the changes you noticed in the image. What does the article say about captive breeding, and its impact on the population or oryx?
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. How does captive breeding impact the population of oryx in Africa?1
Web Search
Use your own words to provide a definition of “captive breeding”.
Possible queries: “captive breeding, definition” or “captive breeding, description”
Sources:
Wikipedia (Captive Breeding):
Captive breeding is the practice of breeding animals in environments that are controlled by humans, and often have added restrictions to reduce the impact of human interaction and other potential disruptions.

8. How does captive breeding impact the population of oryx in Africa?2
Image Search
Find an image that portrays the geographic range of oryx. Where else are oryx found?
Possible queries: “historical range, oryx” or “geographic range map, oryx”
Image from Wildlife Ranching:
Today oryx are found in different parts of Africa, including southern Africa, parts of East and West Africa and the Saharan region. According to this map, oryx can also be found in parts of the Middle East, as well.

9. How does captive breeding impact the population of oryx in Africa?3
Thinking
Use the image to identify patterns. What changes do you notice?
The image conveys how the distribution of oryx throughout Africa has not only shrunk, but includes populations that have been introduced to Africa, and populations that reside in conservation parks.

10. How does captive breeding impact the population of oryx in Africa?4
Web Search
Find a news or blog article about the oryx and captive breeding that might explain the changes you noticed in the image. What does the article say about captive breeding, and its impact on the population or oryx?
Possible queries: “captive breeding, changes in oryx population”
Sources:
From PBS.org:
The article, The Loneliest Animals: Captive Breeding Success Stories, conveys the impact of captive breeding on the population of a particular kind of oryx called, Arabian oryx. The Arabian oryx were “hunted to extinction in the wild” in Recognizing the shrinking population, conservationists started reintroduction programs. In 1962 the a reintroduction initiative began at the Pheonix Zoo, and 20 years later the first oryx bred through the captive breeding program were reintroduced to Oman, which is displayed on the map that portrays the historical range of oryx (
This article suggests that while the reintroduction program has been successful in increasing the population of oryx somewhat (now 1100 in Oman, Saudi Arabia an Israel), the efforts are being undermined by poaching and reduced protection of the breeding habitat.

11. How does captive breeding impact the population of oryx in Africa?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question.