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
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including analyzing how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over the course of a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.

2. What changes do people and governments need to adopt to counter climate change?
© Sakis Papadopoulos/plainpicture
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 changes do people and governments need to adopt to counter climate change?
Southwest of India and Sri Lanka, the Republic of the Maldives has become a holiday hotspot during the past 40 years. Fewer than 200 of the 1,192 islands within the 26 atolls are occupied, and most of those cater to the tourism industry, though fishing is still a major economic force.
The average elevation of these islands is less than 5 feet above sea level, making the Maldives the world’s lowest country. That low elevation also makes the Maldives the nation at the most immediate risk of annihilation due to rising sea levels caused by climate change. In fact, scientists suggest that some islands in the chain may be underwater at some point in the near future.
Very conscious of these threats, the Maldivian government has put into place some of the world’s most aggressive plans to reduce greenhouse emissions, which are thought to contribute to climate change. If all goes as planned, the nation will eliminate or offset all greenhouse gasses it produces by 2020.
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 changes do people and governments need to adopt to counter climate change?1
Web Search
What are some of the effects of climate change? 2
What are possible causes of climate change? 3
What current things are governments doing to address climate change? 4
What are some radical ideas scientists have to combat climate change? 5
Thinking
Will focusing on greenhouse gas emissions be enough to counter climate change?
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 changes do people and governments need to adopt to counter climate change?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 changes do people and governments need to adopt to counter climate change?1
Web Search
What are some of the effects of climate change? 2
What are possible causes of climate change? 3
What current things are governments doing to address climate change? 4
What are some radical ideas scientists have to combat climate change? 5
Thinking
Will focusing on greenhouse gas emissions be enough to counter climate change?
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 changes do people and governments need to adopt to counter climate change?1
Web Search
What are some of the effects of climate change?
(Possible Search Query: ”climate change”)
Source
University of Innsbruck
Some of the effects of climate change are rising sea-levels, changing seasonal water availability and increasing geo-hazards

8. What changes do people and governments need to adopt to counter climate change?2
Web Search
What are possible causes of climate change?
(Possible Search Query: “climate change”, “Causes of climate change”)
Sources
University of Innsbruck
NASA:
Over the last hundred years, human contribution to climate change/ glacier melting has increased significantly. Greenhouse gases have caused a warming of the earth. Methane produced by animals and decomposing garbage contribute to this. The burning of fossil fuels increases the greenhouse gas Carbon Dioxide.

9. What changes do people and governments need to adopt to counter climate change?3
Web Search
What current things are governments doing to address climate change?
(Possible Search Queries: “climate change”, “governments address climate change”, “global governments address climate change”)
Sources
Environmental Protection Agency-
Climate Change Dispatch:
Wikipedia:
The Blaze:
The environmental protection agency is reducing greenhouse gas emissions through common sense regulations and partnering with the private sector. They are also collecting data, advancing science. Some governments encourage its citizens to make changes. Some governments include laws and policies to address climate change. Other countries are trying to industrialize and modernize which can contribute to climate change rather than make strides towards improving it.

10. What changes do people and governments need to adopt to counter climate change?4
Web Search
What are some radical ideas scientists have to combat climate change?
(Possible Search Query: “climate change solutions”)
Sources
The Atlantic-
Some radical ideas that scientists have to combat climate change are:
Engineering humans to be smaller so that they do not require so many resources.
Engineering humans to have cat eyes so that they do not require so much light.
Taking a pill to make you nauseous when eating meat

11. What changes do people and governments need to adopt to counter climate change?5
Thinking
Will focusing on greenhouse gas emissions be enough to counter climate change?
Students answers may vary. Response may include:
Because climate change is increasingly caused by greenhouse gases, reducing human contribution significantly will counter climate change significantly. Students may consider that changing human contributions are not enough to combat climate control. Other factors contribute to greenhouse gases, such as volcanos, and that it is not worth the lifestyle changes required. Students may also argue that greenhouse gases are not the sole contributor to climate change and argue that additional measures in other areas may need to be considered.

12. What changes do people and governments need to adopt to counter climate change?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question.