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.
Alice Keeler is a mother of 5 and a teacher in Fresno, California. She has her B.A in Mathematics, M.S. in Educational Media Design and Technology and is currently working on a doctorate in Educational Technology with an emphasis in games and simulations. EdTech speaker, blogger, and presenter. Founder of coffeeEDU, a 1 hour conference event for educators. New Media Consortium Horizon report advisory panel member. High school math teacher for 14 years. Currently teaching pre-service teachers curriculum, instruction and technology at California State University Fresno. Teaches online for Fresno Pacific University in the Masters in Educational Technology. Passionate that kids are not failures, researches gamification in education to increase student motivation.
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: Mathematics
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSS.IC.A.1 Understand statistics as a process for making inferences about population parameters based on a random sample from that population.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

2. How do you estimate the population of a large marine mammal pod?
© Norbert Rosing/Getty Images
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 do you estimate the population of a large marine mammal pod?
Belugas have several defining characteristics that set them apart from other whales. They have no dorsal fin, and among all whales, they have the highest percentage of blubber on their bodies. The beluga is also one of the most talkative cetaceans in the world’s oceans. With highly developed echolocation senses belugas give a near-constant stream of chirps and chatter as they swim, earning them the nickname “canary of the sea.”
The beluga whale’s pale white skin probably makes for good camouflage when it’s time to surface for air in the icy Arctic waters it calls home. But only the adults have the snowy flesh – beluga babies are born brownish-gray and gradually lighten as they age.
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 do you estimate the population of a large marine mammal pod?1
Image Search
Search images of beluga whales in large pods 2
Web Search
Search how to estimate a population size 3
Search how to estimate marine mammal populations 4
Search abundance estimation of marine mammals. 5
Thinking
Compare and contrast the different ways to estimate populations.
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 do you estimate the population of a large marine mammal pod?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 do you estimate the population of a large marine mammal pod?1
Image Search
Search images of beluga whales in large pods 2
Web Search
Search how to estimate a population size 3
Search how to estimate marine mammal populations 4
Search abundance estimation of marine mammals. 5
Thinking
Compare and contrast the different ways to estimate populations.
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 do you estimate the population of a large marine mammal pod?1
Image Search
Search images of beluga whales in large pods
(Possible Search Queries: beluga whales in large pods)
Source

8. How do you estimate the population of a large marine mammal pod?2
Web Search
Search how to estimate a population size.
(Possible Search Queries: estimating population size, math estimate population size )
Sources
Biology Corner:
One method is capture, tag and release. Scientists will find a sample in an area and then use this sample to extrapolate out the larger population size.

9. How do you estimate the population of a large marine mammal pod?3
Web Search
Search how to estimate marine mammal populations
(Possible Search Queries: estimating marine mammal populations)
Source
Discovery of Sound in the Sea:
For marine mammals they sometimes use sound since they are not always visible.

10. How do you estimate the population of a large marine mammal pod?4
Web Search
Search abundance estimation of marine mammals.
(Possible Search Queries: abundance estimation, marine mammals abundance estimation, distance sampling)
Sources
Distance Project:
Wikipedia:
Wikipedia:
Scientists will use distance sampling. Distance sampling is a selection of methods that estimate the population density or abundance of populations. The main methods are based on line transects or point transects. Abundance estimation is statistical methods for estimating the number of individuals in a population.

11. How do you estimate the population of a large marine mammal pod?5
Thinking
Compare and contrast the different ways to estimate populations.
Abundance estimation is used for distance sampling, estimating marine mammal populations might include sound sampling, and population samplings includes tagging and releasing -- all are useful but vary in technology used.

12. How do you estimate the population of a large marine mammal pod?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question.