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.3.3 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.
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).

2. Porcupines’ quills allow them to protect themselves but are very rare in the animal kingdom. What are three other ways animals escape predators and how do these mechanisms work?
© D. Robert & Lorri Franz/Aurora Photos
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. Porcupines’ quills allow them to protect themselves but are very rare in the animal kingdom. What are three other ways animals escape predators and how do these mechanisms work?
Newborn North American porcupines have soft quills that harden within a few hours after birth. That’s lucky not just for mom, but for the young rodent as well. Though porcupines do have plenty of predators, they’re still unlikely to be attacked, thanks to those sharp quills covering their backs.
While most other herbivores move in small groups or herds to reduce their chances of becoming someone else’s lunch, the porcupine leads a fairly solitary life and moves slowly around the forest at night, foraging for vegetation and generally being left alone.
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. Porcupines’ quills allow them to protect themselves but are very rare in the animal kingdom. What are three other ways animals escape predators and how do these mechanisms work? 1
Image Search
Find a diagram of the food chain. What role do you think defense mechanisms play in this, if any? Do you think animals who use defense mechanisms don’t have predators? Why or why not? 2
Video Search
Find a video of an animal using a defense mechanism. What is the animal and what is the mechanism its using? Is it effective in keeping a predator away? 3
Web Search
The quills of porcupines are a defense mechanism that would be visible to predators. Can you find an example of a defense mechanism that is invisible? 4
When people are trying to escape someone or something, they might put on a disguise. What’s an example from the animal kingdom of using a disguise to fool predators? 5
In a process called “dislodgement”, some animals actually lose body parts to escape from predators. What is an example of this?
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. Porcupines’ quills allow them to protect themselves but are very rare in the animal kingdom. What are three other ways animals escape predators and how do these mechanisms work? 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. Porcupines’ quills allow them to protect themselves but are very rare in the animal kingdom. What are three other ways animals escape predators and how do these mechanisms work? 1
Image Search
Find a diagram of the food chain. What role do you think defense mechanisms play in this, if any? Do you think animals who use defense mechanisms don’t have predators? Why or why not? 2
Video Search
Find a video of an animal using a defense mechanism. What is the animal and what is the mechanism its using? Is it effective in keeping a predator away? 3
Web Search
The quills of porcupines are a defense mechanism that would be visible to predators. Can you find an example of a defense mechanism that is invisible? 4
When people are trying to escape someone or something, they might put on a disguise. What’s an example from the animal kingdom of using a disguise to fool predators? 5
In a process called “dislodgement”, some animals actually lose body parts to escape from predators. What is an example of this?
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. Porcupines’ quills allow them to protect themselves but are very rare in the animal kingdom. What are three other ways animals escape predators and how do these mechanisms work? 1
Image Search
Find a diagram of the food chain. What role do you think defense mechanisms play in this, if any? Do you think animals who use defense mechanisms don’t have predators? Why or why not?
(Possible queries: “food chain diagram”, “image of food chain”).
Students should look at a diagram of a food chain, such as the one found here: in order to think about specific examples of prey and predators. They should think about how many animals have defense mechanisms, even if it’s something as simple as being able to run away quickly. Because most animals have some kind of defense, it probably doesn’t affect food chains that much. In other words, even though a porcupine has quills, it still has some predators, just fewer than it would without quills! They should be able to point to whatever food chain they find to give specific examples of this. In the one above, they might think about how the deer pictured still has the predator of a cougar, even though it can probably run quickly and is very quiet and not easily noticed in the forest.

8. Porcupines’ quills allow them to protect themselves but are very rare in the animal kingdom. What are three other ways animals escape predators and how do these mechanisms work? 2
Video Search
Find a video of an animal using a defense mechanism. What is the animal and what is the mechanism its using? Is it effective in keeping a predator away?
(Possible queries: “Bing/Videos: for kids, animal defense mechanisms”, “Bing/Videos: for kids, animal defending itself from predator”).
Answers will vary. For example, in this video ( we learn that a turkey vulture will vomit when being attacked by predators. This serves as an offering of an alternate food source to them, and the bad smell may make predators lose interest. We know that the turkey vulture has some predators, so we can guess that this is effective at some times but not others.

9. Porcupines’ quills allow them to protect themselves but are very rare in the animal kingdom. What are three other ways animals escape predators and how do these mechanisms work? 3
Web Search
The quills of porcupines are a defense mechanism that would be visible to predators. Can you find an example of a defense mechanism that is invisible?
(Possible queries: “for kids, animal defense mechanisms”, “for kids, how do animals defend themselves?”, “for kids, animal invisible defense mechanisms”).
Answers will vary. For example, from
Some animals are small in size, but pack a deadly punch. Liquid-based defense systems, such as poison and venom, serve a dual-purpose in the world of animals. Not only do they defend the animal from potential predators, but they usually combine into a hunting mechanism as well. Many snakes and scorpions commonly create venom, which they will strike into other animals that are perceived as a threat.

10. Porcupines’ quills allow them to protect themselves but are very rare in the animal kingdom. What are three other ways animals escape predators and how do these mechanisms work? 4
Web Search
When people are trying to escape someone or something, they might put on a disguise. What’s an example from the animal kingdom of using a disguise to fool predators?
(Possible queries: “for kids, animal defense mechanisms”, “for kids, how do animals defend themselves?”, “for kids, animal defense mechanisms, disguise”).
Answers will vary. For example from
Some insects --- such as walking sticks --- mimic their environment. This particular insect has evolved over time to look almost identical to a common twig. Several other types of insects have evolved similar color schemes and looks, resembling the natural environment around them. Some, such as the chameleon, can change colors, allowing a bit of added versatility.

11. Porcupines’ quills allow them to protect themselves but are very rare in the animal kingdom. What are three other ways animals escape predators and how do these mechanisms work? 5
Web Search
In a process called “dislodgement”, some animals actually lose body parts to escape from predators. What is an example of this?
(Possible queries: “for kids, animal defense mechanisms”, “for kids, how do animals defend themselves?”, “for kids, animal defense mechanisms, dislodgement”).
Answers will vary. For example, from
When a predator attacks a lizard, its tail will snap off easily, dislodge and start moving rapidly as if it has a life of its own, enabling the lizard to get away. When the tail is moving the predator gets distracted, giving the lizard enough time to run and move out of harm's way. The tail, loaded with harmful parasites, is also not edible.

12. Porcupines’ quills allow them to protect themselves but are very rare in the animal kingdom. What are three other ways animals escape predators and how do these mechanisms work?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question. Students should pull together the information they have gathered in order to explain three different animal defense mechanisms. Answers will vary. For example:
Some lizards use dislodgement, where their tail will dislodge and start moving rapidly as if it has a life of its own, enabling the lizard to get away. When the tail is moving the predator gets distracted, giving the lizard enough time to run and move out of harm's way.
Chameleons change colors and camouflage in their environments so that they remain hidden from predators.
Some snakes commonly create venom, which they will strike into other animals that are perceived as a threat.