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.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.
CCSS.Math.Content.3.MD.C.7Relate area to the operations of multiplication and addition.
CCSS.Math.Content.4.MD.A.3 Apply the area and perimeter formulas for rectangles in real world and mathematical problems. For example, find the width of a rectangular room given the area of the flooring and the length, by viewing the area formula as a multiplication equation with an unknown factor.

2. What are two different ways you could compare the size of Rouen and Paris today?
© Tim Gartside/age fotostock
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 two different ways you could compare the size of Rouen and Paris today?
In medieval times, the English occupied portions of France, including the city of Rouen in northwest. As a sort of halfway point between Paris and the English Channel, Rouen was at the time, the second largest city in France.
Today, centuries after French rule was restored, Rouen boasts numerous art museums and some modern architecture alongside its well-preserved Gothic buildings. The cathedral, for example, managed to remain intact despite the city withstanding serious damage during WWII.
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 two different ways you could compare the size of Rouen and Paris today?1
Thinking/
Web Search
What are the different ways of talking about the size of a city? If you were to explain how big the city or town you live in is to someone who wasn’t from there, what kinds of measurements would you use? 2
Map Search
Find Rouen and Paris on a map. Does this help you compare their sizes? Why or why not? 3
What is a square mile? How is it different from a regular mile? Which do you think cities would be more likely to be measure in and why? 4
How big (geographically) is Rouen? How big (geographically) is Paris? How could you write a formula to compare their sizes? 5
How many people live in Rouen? How could you write a formula to compare its population size to Paris?
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 two different ways you could compare the size of Rouen and Paris today?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 two different ways you could compare the size of Rouen and Paris today?1
Thinking/
Web Search
What are the different ways of talking about the size of a city? If you were to explain how big the city or town you live in is to someone who wasn’t from there, what kinds of measurements would you use? 2
Map Search
Find Rouen and Paris on a map. Does this help you compare their sizes? Why or why not? 3
What is a square mile? How is it different from a regular mile? Which do you think cities would be more likely to be measure in and why? 4
How big (geographically) is Rouen? How big (geographically) is Paris? How could you write a formula to compare their sizes? 5
How many people live in Rouen? How could you write a formula to compare its population size to Paris?
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 two different ways you could compare the size of Rouen and Paris today?1
Thinking/Web Search
What are the different ways of talking about the size of a city? If you were to explain how big the city or town you live in is to someone who wasn’t from there, what kinds of measurements would you use?
(Possible queries: “size of _____”, “how many miles is ____?”, “how many people live in ____?”)*.
*Students should insert the name of their own city or town into the search bar.
Students should first brainstorm what their response would be if someone asked how big their city or town was and what people are referring to specifically when they talk about the size of a place. Answers will vary, but encourage them to think about size in terms of how big a place is physically and also how many people live there. They should look up the information on their own city to find these specific measurements. For example, a student living in Burlington, Vermont, could search “size of Burlington, Vermont” and “how many people live in Burlington, Vermont?” to find that it is approximately 15.5 square miles and approximately 42,282 people live there.
(From and

8. What are two different ways you could compare the size of Rouen and Paris today?2
Map Search
Find Rouen and Paris on a map. Does this help you compare their sizes? Why or why not?
(Possible queries: “Bing/Maps: Rouen”, “Bing/Maps: Paris”).
Students should locate Rouen and Paris on a map of France (such as the one found here: They should ask themselves if, based on the way these cities are represented on the map, they are able to compare their sizes. Answers may vary. Students will probably say that it’s very difficult to guess the size of these cities in relation to each other based on the dots on the map, however, they should also try zooming out and note that the farther away you get, the fewer cities are labeled; bigger cities are usually the ones that are represented in a bigger font on a map. For example, if you zoom out on the map of France, Paris is still labeled, but the dot for Rouen disappears more quickly, which might give you some clues into their respective sizes.

9. What are two different ways you could compare the size of Rouen and Paris today?3
Web Search
What is a square mile? How is it different from a regular mile? Which do you think cities would be more likely to be measure in and why?
(Possible queries: “how to understand what a square mile is”, “what is a square mile?”, “how is a square mile different from a regular mile?”).
Students should read the description of a square mile, such as the one found here, to understand that a square mile is a unit of measurement that’s often used to describe how big an area is. They should understand, based on this description, that a square mile describes area and can often be calculated by figuring out width x length. For areas that are not square (for example, most cities are not perfect squares!) other formulas can be used. Students should compare this unit of measurement to what they know of a regular mile, which only measures length. It wouldn’t make sense to measure cities or towns in regular miles, because this would be assuming they only have length, and no width.

10. What are two different ways you could compare the size of Rouen and Paris today?4
Web Search
How big (geographically) is Rouen? How big (geographically) is Paris? How could you write a formula to compare their sizes?
(Possible queries: “size of Rouen, France”, “how big is Rouen, France”, “size of Paris”, “how big is Paris, France”).
From and
Rouen, France is approximately 8.25 square miles. Paris, France is approximately 40.7 square miles.
Students should then create a formula to compare their sizes. They should recognize that this is a question of difference, so subtraction is the most appropriate operation to use. For example:
40.7 square miles (size of Paris) – 8.25 square miles (size of Rouen) = (difference in size in square miles).

11. What are two different ways you could compare the size of Rouen and Paris today?5
Web Search
How many people live in Rouen? How could you write a formula to compare its population size to Paris?
(Possible queries: “population size of Rouen”, “population size of Paris”).
From and
The population of Rouen is approximately 650,000 people. The population of Paris is approximately 2.24 million people. Students should then create a formula to compare their sizes. They should recognize that this is a question of difference, so subtraction is the most appropriate operation to use. For example:
2,240,000 people (population size of Paris) – 650,000 (population size of Rouen) = 1,590,000 people (difference in population size).
In other words, Paris has approximately 1.59 million more people in it than Rouen!

12. What are two different ways you could compare the size of Rouen and Paris today?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question. Students should think about how, when comparing the size of cities, there are different ways to talk about it. Most commonly, people compare geographic size (i.e. number of square miles) and population size (number of people). They should pull together the information they have gathered to explain that Paris is approximately square miles larger than Rouen, and has approximately 1.59 million more people living in it.