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 the Microsoft Educator Network.
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, take a Skype lesson on today’s topic, or invite a guest speaker to expand on today’s subject. And if you are using Windows 8, the panoramas in the MSN Travel App are great teaching tools. We have thousands of other education apps available on Windows here.
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. What is the difference between a glacier advancing and retreating and why do most glaciers do both?
© Keri Oberly/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. What is the difference between a glacier advancing and retreating and why do most glaciers do both?
This is not your average mountain glacier. The terminus of Franz Josef Glacier sits in a verdant temperate rainforest on the central western coast of New Zealand’s South Island, less than 1,000 feet above sea level. To hike the current length of Franz Josef would take you about 7.5 miles out of the coastal valley and up into the Southern Alps. Why “current” length? Because Franz Josef, like all glaciers, advances and retreats over time. The current cycle of growth indicates that Franz Josef is retreating, though it had been advancing steadily since 1997.
While you can hike the length of Franz Josef Glacier in a single day, it’s a long haul, even for experienced ice hikers. But many tourism companies employ helicopters to take visitors to some of the glacier’s easier hiking portions.
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 the difference between a glacier advancing and retreating and why do most glaciers do both?1
Image Search
Find a diagram that explains what causes glacier movements. Based on the image, why do glaciers advance and retreat? 2
Web Search
What is happening when a glacier is advancing? 3
What is happening when a glacier is retreating? 4
What determines whether a glacier will advance or retreat? 5
Recently, scientists have observed a significant amount of glacier retreat. Why is this a concern?
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 the difference between a glacier advancing and retreating and why do most glaciers do both?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 the difference between a glacier advancing and retreating and why do most glaciers do both?1
Image Search
Find a diagram that explains what causes glacier movements. Based on the image, why do glaciers advance and retreat? 2
Web Search
What is happening when a glacier is advancing? 3
What is happening when a glacier is retreating? 4
What determines whether a glacier will advance or retreat? 5
Recently, scientists have observed a significant amount of glacier retreat. Why is this a concern?

7. What is the difference between a glacier advancing and retreating and why do most glaciers do both?1
Image Search
Find a diagram that explains what causes glacier movements. Based on the image, why do glaciers advance and retreat?
(Possible Search Queries: “Bing/Images: diagram, glacier movement”, “Bing/Images: why do glaciers advance and retreat?).
Students should look at a diagram such as the one found here:
They should then describe what they see in their own words. Answers will vary. According to this diagram, it looks like precipitation falls on the glacier, which causes movement, and then there is melting and sublimation of the liquid from the glacier back into the air, which may cause additional glacier movement.

8. What is the difference between a glacier advancing and retreating and why do most glaciers do both?2
Web Search
What is happening when a glacier is advancing?
(Possible Search Queries: “what is happening when a glacier is advancing?”, “what does it mean for a glacier to advance?”).
From
As precipitation adds more mass to a glacier than melting and sublimation remove, the total volume of the glacier increases. As a result, the glacier grows, extending farther down the valley than it did previously. This is called an advance.

9. What is the difference between a glacier advancing and retreating and why do most glaciers do both?3
Web Search
What is happening when a glacier is retreating?
(Possible Search Queries: “what is happening when a glacier is retreating?”, “what does it mean for a glacier to retreat?”).
From
When glaciers melt faster than they are replenished by precipitation, the total volume decreases. The glacier shrinks. This is called a retreat. The glacier is not actually retreating, or physically moving up the valley. It just appears to do so, since the glacier does not extend as far down the valley as it did previously.

10. What is the difference between a glacier advancing and retreating and why do most glaciers do both?4
Web Search
What determines whether a glacier will advance or retreat?
(Possible Search Queries: “why do glaciers advance and retreat?”, “when do glaciers advance and when do they retreat?”).
From
Glaciers lose ice mass every year, to melting and sublimation. They are dynamic systems. Glaciers grow (advance) and shrink (retreat) as a result of precipitation, melting and sublimation—all while slowly sliding down their valleys. Local and global climate changes cause the changes in this dynamic system.

11. What is the difference between a glacier advancing and retreating and why do most glaciers do both?5
Web Search
Recently, scientists have observed a significant amount of glacier retreat. Why is this a concern?
(Possible Search Queries: “why are glaciers retreating?”, “increased glacier retreat, why is this a problem?”).
From
The retreat of glaciers since 1850 affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use, mountain recreation, animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt, and in the longer term, the level of the oceans. Studied by glaciologists, the temporal coincidence of glacier retreat with the measured increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases is often cited as an evidentiary underpinning of global warming.

12. What is the difference between a glacier advancing and retreating and why do most glaciers do both?
Students should understand that glaciers advance and retreat depending on the local and global climate around them. When glaciers are losing mass (there is more melting and sublimation than precipitation), they “retreat” (in other words, their shrinking makes it look like they are moving up a valley). When glaciers are gaining mass (there is more precipitation than melting and sublimation), they “advance” (extending further into a valley). Many glaciers in the world today are retreating at alarming rates and scientists are concerned about what impact they will have on the availability of fresh water and the level of the oceans.