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.
Patrice Berry earned a B. A. in Political Science at Swarthmore College, an M.S.Ed at the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently studying college access and completion as a doctoral student at Temple University.  Patrice is currently the Academic Affairs Director at College Track (East Palo Alto), where she manages academic support initiatives designed to promote college access and college completion among first-generation, low-income students.  Ninety-percent of College Track students are accepted to college, and the college graduation rate is 2.5 times higher than the national average.  Prior to joining College Track, Patrice worked for the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania, for whom she designed and implemented college access and career readiness curricula.   Patrice recently married and now lives in Oakland, where she sings at local jam sessions in her free time.
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: Reading Informational Text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

2. How does the population status of axolotls relate to habitat conservation?
© John Cancalosi/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 does the population status of axolotls relate to habitat conservation?
We may be looking at an “extinct” species of salamander. The axolotl was once found in the wild in only two places: Lakes Chalco and Xochimilco in Mexico City. The former lake is gone, while the latter has been severely altered over the years, endangering the last natural habitat for this rare amphibian.
At the end of 2013, a census of the axolotl found no specimens in Lake Xochimilco. But a follow-up search at the start of this year found two still living in the wild waters. Of course, many captive specimens survive, both as pets and for scientific research. Part of the interest among scientists is the axolotl’s ability to regenerate lost limbs.
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 does the population status of axolotls relate to habitat conservation?1
Map Search
Find a map that conveys the geographic range of axolotls. Where might axolotls be found? 2
Web Search
Identify the major characteristics of the ideal habitat for axolotls. 3
What has been the habitat for axolotls, historically? 4
Find an article that outlines the major threats to the population of axolotls, or primary reasons for its extinction.
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 does the population status of axolotls relate to habitat conservation?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 does the population status of axolotls relate to habitat conservation?1
Map Search
Find a map that conveys the geographic range of axolotls. Where might axolotls be found? 2
Web Search
Identify the major characteristics of the ideal habitat for axolotls. 3
What has been the habitat for axolotls, historically? 4
Find an article that outlines the major threats to the population of axolotl, or primary reasons for its extinction.
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 does the population status of axolotls relate to habitat conservation?1
Map Search
Find a map that conveys the geographic range of axolotls. Where might axolotls be found?
(Possible queries: “geographic range, axolotls, map”)
Geographic range map from UC Santa Barbara, Department of Geology:
Axolotls can be found in Central Mexico.

8. How does the population status of axolotls relate to habitat conservation?2
Web Search
Identify the major characteristics of the ideal habitat for axolotls.
(Possible queries: “ideal habitat, axolotls”)
From EDGE (Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered):
The ideal habitat for axolotls is wet; they require “deep-water lakes and water bodies” that are comprised by rich sources of vegetation.

9. How does the population status of axolotls relate to habitat conservation?3
Web Search
What has been the habitat for axolotls, historically?
(Possible queries: “axolotl habitat, historical”)
Sources:
Wikipedia (axolotl):
EDGE (Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered):
The main habitat for axolotls includes lakes, including at one point both Lake Xochimilco and Lake Chalco – two lakes in Central Mexico.

10. How does the population status of axolotls relate to habitat conservation?4
Web Search
Find an article that outlines the major threats to the population of axolotls, or primary reasons for its extinction.
Possible queries: “population threat, axolotl”
Sources:
Wikipedia (axolotl):
EDGE (Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered):
The major threats to the axolotl population include the following:
Loss of habitat – Lake Chalco no longer exists, and Lake Xochilmico has changed, and is now mainly a collection of channels
The urbanization of Mexico

11. How does the population status of axolotls relate to habitat conservation?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question.