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: Measurement & Data
CCSS.Math.Content.3.MD.B.3 Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent a data set with several categories. Solve one- and two-step "how many more" and "how many less" problems using information presented in scaled bar graphs. For example, draw a bar graph in which each square in the bar graph might represent 5 pets.
CCSS.Math.Content.4.MD.A.1 Know relative sizes of measurement units within one system of units including km, m, cm; kg, g; lb, oz.; l, ml; hr, min, sec. Within a single system of measurement, express measurements in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Record measurement equivalents in a two-column table. For example, know that 1 ft is 12 times as long as 1 in. Express the length of a 4 ft snake as 48 in. Generate a conversion table for feet and inches listing the number pairs (1, 12), (2, 24), (3, 36), ...
CCSS.Math.Content.4.MD.A.2 Use the four operations to solve word problems involving distances, intervals of time, liquid volumes, masses of objects, and money, including problems involving simple fractions or decimals, and problems that require expressing measurements given in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Represent measurement quantities using diagrams such as number line diagrams that feature a measurement scale.

2. What are three different ways of representing how much taller the Millau Viaduct is than the second tallest bridge in the world?
© Patrick Landmann/Science Photo Library
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 are three different ways of representing how much taller the Millau Viaduct is than the second tallest bridge in the world?
By measure of its towering masts, the Millau Viaduct in France is currently the tallest bridge in the world. The highest tower of the bridge shoots up 1,125 feet above the Tarn River Valley below. However, those who cross the bridge in a car are crossing only the 12th- tallest bridge deck in the world.
Don’t let that discourage you from paying it a visit, though. Beyond the town of Millau – a village famous for its exquisite glove manufacturing – is a region of southern France known as the birthplace of Roquefort cheese. They had us at “cheese.”
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 are three different ways of representing how much taller the Millau Viaduct is than the second tallest bridge in the world? 1
Web Search/Thinking
If you were to make a bar graph representing the heights of the two tallest bridges in the world, what would each bar represent? What would you want to put on the y-axis? 2
Image Search
Conduct an image search to find graphs that measure the height of various things and people. What do you notice about these graphs? How is the data represented? 3
We know what the height of the Millau Viaduct is in feet. If we knew what the height of the second tallest bridge in the world is in inches, how could we compare them? 4
Web Search/thinking
We know what the height of the Millau Viaduct is in feet. If we knew what the height of the second tallest bridge in the world in miles, how could we compare them? 5
Thinking
How could you write a word problem to solve for how much taller the Millau Viaduct is than the second tallest bridge in the world? What units would you be solving it in?
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 are three different ways of representing how much taller the Millau Viaduct is than the second tallest bridge in the world? 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 are three different ways of representing how much taller the Millau Viaduct is than the second tallest bridge in the world? 1
Web Search/Thinking
If you were to make a bar graph representing the heights of the two tallest bridges in the world, what would each bar represent? What would you want to put on the y-axis? 2
Image Search
Conduct an image search to find graphs that measure the height of various things and people. What do you notice about these graphs? How is the data represented? 3
We know what the height of the Millau Viaduct is in feet. If we knew what the height of the second tallest bridge in the world is in inches, how could we compare them? 4
Web Search/thinking
We know what the height of the Millau Viaduct is in feet. If we knew what the height of the second tallest bridge in the world in miles, how could we compare them? 5
Thinking
How could you write a word problem to solve for how much taller the Millau Viaduct is than the second tallest bridge in the world? What units would you be solving it in?
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 are three different ways of representing how much taller the Millau Viaduct is than the second tallest bridge in the world? 1
Web Search/Thinking
If you were to make a bar graph representing the heights of the two tallest bridges in the world, what would each bar represent? What would you want to put on the y-axis?
(Possible queries: “for kids, using bar graphs”, “for kids, how to create a bar graph”).
Students should search for resources that help them think about how they would go about creating a bar graph to compare the bridges’ heights. Based on examples they find, or descriptions of bar graphs, such as the one found here ( students should determine that they would use a bar to represent each bridge. The y-axis would represent units of height. We know from the description that the Millau Viaduct is 1,125 feet high so we can determine that “feet” would be an appropriate unit to use.

8. What are three different ways of representing how much taller the Millau Viaduct is than the second tallest bridge in the world? 2
Image Search
Conduct an image search to find graphs that measure the height of various things and people. What do you notice about these graphs? How is the data represented?
(Possible queries: “Bing/Images: bar graph of height”, “Bing/Images: bar graph measuring height”).
Students should look at various examples of bar graphs that measure height in order to find examples of how data is represented in this format. They should look at images and be able to determine what data the bar graph is capturing: what is being measured and what is on the y-axis. For example, looking at this image: students should determine that the graph is measuring the height of the Nussbaum Brothers at age 25. There are five brothers total (each one representing one bar) and their height is being measured in inches.

9. What are three different ways of representing how much taller the Millau Viaduct is than the second tallest bridge in the world? 3
Web Search/Thinking
We know what the height of the Millau Viaduct is in feet. If we knew what the height of the second tallest bridge in the world is in inches, how could we compare them?
(Possible queries: “difference between feet and inches”, “how many inches in a foot?”).
From
There are 12 inches in a foot.
Using this information, students should think about how they would compare the sizes of these two bridges if they were presented in different units. Knowing there are 12 inches in a foot, they should recognize that they would need to multiply 1,125 feet by 12 to find how tall the Millau Viaduct is in inches. They should also think about how they could divide the second tallest bridge by 12 to find how tall it is in feet. Whichever way you do the conversion, students should recognize that it’s important for the heights to be in the same unit in order to compare them.

10. What are three different ways of representing how much taller the Millau Viaduct is than the second tallest bridge in the world? 4
Web Search/thinking
We know what the height of the Millau Viaduct is in feet. If we knew what the height of the second tallest bridge in the world in miles, how could we compare them?
(Possible queries: “difference between feet and miles”, “how many feet are in a mile?”).
From
There are 5,280 feet in a mile.
Knowing there are 5,280 feet in a mile, students should recognize that they would need to multiply divide 1,125 feet by 5,280 feet to find the number of miles high that the Millau Viaduct is in order to compare it. They should also think about how they could multiply the second tallest bridge by 5,280 to find how tall it is in feet. Whichever way you do the conversion, students should recognize that it’s important for the heights to be in the same unit in order to compare them.

11. What are three different ways of representing how much taller the Millau Viaduct is than the second tallest bridge in the world? 5
Thinking
How could you write a word problem to solve for how much taller the Millau Viaduct is than the second tallest bridge in the world? What units would you be solving it in?
Students should think about how best to compare the bridges and set up a word problem to do so. Answers may vary. For example:
Height of the Millau Viaduct (1,125 feet) – Height of the second tallest bridge (in feet) = difference in feet
Students should recognize that they will want to make sure they’re working with the same unit when they find the difference.

12. What are three different ways of representing how much taller the Millau Viaduct is than the second tallest bridge in the world?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question. Students should look up the second tallest bridge in the world (Possible queries: “list of tallest bridges in the world”, “second tallest bridge in the world”) and find that it is the Russky Bridge at 1,053 feet (From:
They should then create a formula and compare this height to the height of the Millau Viaduct. For example:
1,125 feet (height of Millau Viaduct) – 1,053 feet (height of the Russky Bridge) = 72 feet.
In addition to finding the difference between the heights, students should think further about ways of representing this difference. One way might be to use a formula like the one they developed, but another might be to use one of the online resources they found to create a bar graph, where each bridge represents a different bar and the height (in feet) is on the y-axis. They might also think about how they could represent this difference in miles or inches, and what they would need to do to convert the heights into this unit. Students should understand that difference between these bridges’ heights are consistent, it’s a matter of how to present the information and what units to use.