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: English Language Arts while working with High School Life, Physical and Earth Science Standards

2. What is a bubbling mud pot releasing into the environment?
© Jane Sweeney/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. What is a bubbling mud pot releasing into the environment?
The 400 mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan’s Gobustan National Park are generally quiet – simmering slowly and making for great video and photo opportunities. But every couple decades, one of the mud pots erupts, sending a vent of flame hundreds of feet into the sky and blasting tons of mud onto the landscape.
Don’t let those geologic histrionics keep you away. Gobustan offers many incredible experiences for those who make the trek to this park, situated between the Greater Caucasus mountain range and the shores of the Caspian Sea.
Though it’s now an arid climate, the region was once a lush wilderness that supported some of humanity’s oldest civilizations. Those early communities left their mark on the landscape with rock carvings made as much as 40,000 years ago. The petroglyphs, scratched onto boulders and the sides of cliffs, are now protected inside the park.
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 is a bubbling mud pot releasing into the environment?1
Image Search
Go to Bing images and search for pictures of mud pots and mud volcanoes. 2
Web Search
What are possible causes for the mud to bubble? 3
What types of chemicals can be found in a mud pot? 4
What causes the smell of “rotten eggs” at the mud pots in Yellowstone National Park? 5
With the large quantity of carbon dioxide being released, what are the possible influences on the environment?
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 is a bubbling mud pot releasing into the environment?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 is a bubbling mud pot releasing into the environment?1
Image Search
Go to Bing images and search for pictures of mud pots and mud volcanoes. 2
Web Search
What are possible causes for the mud to bubble? 3
What types of chemicals can be found in a mud pot? 4
What causes the smell of “rotten eggs” at the mud pots in Yellowstone National Park? 5
With the large quantity of carbon dioxide being released, what are the possible influences on the environment?
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 is a bubbling mud pot releasing into the environment?1
Image Search
Go to Bing images and search for pictures of mud pots and mud volcanoes.
(Possible Search Queries: mud volcanos, mud pots)
Sources
About:

8. What is a bubbling mud pot releasing into the environment?2
Web Search
What are possible causes for the mud to bubble?
(Possible Search Queries: how is carbon dioxide created, bubbling mud pot facts)
Sources
National Park Service:
Mud pots bubble from gas build up or from temperature.

9. What is a bubbling mud pot releasing into the environment?3
Web Search
What types of chemicals can be found in a mud pot?
(Possible Search Queries: temp range for bubbling mud pots, bubbling mud pot chemicals)
Sources
Live Science:
Some possible chemicals: methane, carbon dioxide, sulfur.

10. What is a bubbling mud pot releasing into the environment?4
Web Search
What causes the smell of “rotten eggs” at the mud pots in Yellowstone National Park?
(Possible Search Queries: what causes the smell of mud pots)
Sources
Yellowstone:
The smell comes from sulfur in the mud.

11. What is a bubbling mud pot releasing into the environment?5
Web Search
With the large quantity of carbon dioxide being released, what are the possible influences on the environment?
(Possible Search Queries: carbon dioxide and volcanos)
Sources
Science Blog:
USGS:
Carbon Dioxide kills the plants in the immediate area.

12. What is a bubbling mud pot releasing into the environment?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question.