Posts Tagged Common Core & NGSS

STEM Tuesday — Bioluminesence– Writing Tips & Resources

 

What do bobtail squids, comb jellies, and lanternsharks have in common? Along with many other living things, these marine creatures glow in the dark. But why? In terms of economies, what does bioluminescence do for an animal? For some, it helps them attract matesor meals. For vampire squids, it’s actually a defense mechanism; instead of squirting ink like other cephalopods, they squirt glowing mucus to distract predators. In terms of how creatures glow in the dark, there are multiple answers. But we’ll get to that in a minute. For now, why is an important question, one that leads to our first exercise.

Writing Prompt 1 | Facts as Fantasy Seeds

I’ve personally found that some of my best fiction writing germinates from simple facts. For example:

“Soldiers in the trenches sometimes used glowworms to read maps without drawing dangerous attention to themselves” (35)

GLOW: The WILD WONDERS OF BIOLUMINESCENCE BY JENNIFER N. R. SMITH

What ingenuity! This cool fact is a perfect seed for a fictional premise.

Come up with a glowing fantasy creature. Why does it glow? Choose one of the reasons listed above, or invent your own. How has this creature influenced the world in which it lives? What inventions has this living-glow technology inspired? How might your glowing creature factor into the plot of your book? What problems might bioluminescent life forces be able to solve – in what low-light situations might they ethically (or unethically, if you’re writing a dystopian novel) be put to use? Brainstorm for at least 15 minutes, taking down every writerly thought you have. For extra credit, sketch your creature.

Adapt the Exercise for Classroom Use
What are your students’ favorite animals and why? Use the bioluminescence prompt above with students as-is, or let them choose their own found fact to work with.

Writing Prompt 2 | What’s the Difference?

Again from Smith’s book GLOW, when reading about bioluminescence, I noticed two related words: biofluorescence and biophosphorescence. They all have to do with glowing in the dark, but the differences are scientifically significant. Let’s take a look:

  1. Fireflies and glow sticks are both examples of luminescence; they work due to chemical reactions. The other two don’t create light through chemical reactions, but capture light from other sources.)
  2. Fluorescent materials absorb non-visible light and convert it into visible light, emitting no afterglow. Sapphires, amber, pearls, and other gemstones are prime examples of fluorescent materials because they glow under UV light, but stop glowing immediately when the light is turned off. Biofluorescent organisms include polka-dot tree frogs, hawksbill sea turtles, and scorpions.
  3. Phosphorescent materials store the light they absorb, emitting it more slowly. Because their glow lasts for a while after their initial exposure to a light source, glow-in-the-dark stars are an example of phosphorescence. The study of biophosphorescence—phosphorescence in living organisms—is relatively new, with reports of such in rice, starch, and millipedes.

All this to say, paying attention to words’ definitions can make a huge difference. Before beginning, select three to five sentences from a work-in-progress. They could be from an article, a novel, an essay. Whatever you (or your students, if you’re using this as a classroom activity) are working on.

This second writing exercise is inspired by Several Short Sentences about Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg. He wrote that to be a writer,

“You need an ever-growing vocabulary—

and with it the awareness

that most words carry several meanings.

You need to look up even familiar words

every time you have a doubt

and especially

when you don’t have a doubt.

That is, very often.

That is, every time you write” (58).

With this in mind, look up the definitions of every noun, verb, and adjective in your sentences and revise each sentence in at least two different ways. Here are some tips:

  • Wherever there’s an -ly adverb, consider upgrading your verb.
  • Consider what each sentence denotes (literally means) vs. what it connotes (implies). Is it doing the work you intend? Browse a thesaurus to find other words that may capture your intended meaning(s) more accurately.
  • Moving from known information to new information is one way to ensure that you don’t lose readers. Could rearranging your sentences’ phrases clarify your meaning(s)?
  • Consider how the revised sentences compare with the originals. Did you learn anything new during this process?

If you try these exercises, comment below about how they worked for you, or hop over to my website and contact me.

Best,

Stephanie Jackson

A nature-loving creative, Stephanie Jackson writes poemsarticles, picture books, middle-grade novels, and more. Her nonfiction has been published in Cricket magazine and her poems have been published in The Dirigible Balloon and various literary journals including Touchstones, where she’s been a contributing poetry editor. Professional affiliations include the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and The Authors Guild. In 2025, she’s graduating from Utah Valley University with her English degree, emphasis in creative writing. She interacts with the kidlit community on Twitter as @canoesandcosmos, and you can read more at StephanieWritesforKids.com.

STEM Tuesday — Bioluminesence– In the Classroom

 

 

 

 

 

 

This month I learned from the following books that there are a LOT of animals that glow:

Mysterious Glowing Mammals: An Unexpected Discovery Sparks a Scientific Investigation

by Maria Parrott-Ryan

This book tells the story of scientific discovery. I love how it shows the twists and turns that scientists follow when they’re exploring a topic.

 

Animals That Glow: Fireflies and Glowworms

by Joyce Markovics

This book highlights a few animals that glow on land, specifically fireflies and glowworms.

Animals That Glow: Octopuses and Squid

by Joyce Markovics

This book explores the octopuses and squid that glow in the ocean. Some create their own light, while other harness the light made by other creatures.

 

 

Bonus: Luminous: Living Things that Light Up the Night

by Julia Kuo

This picture book is a great introduction to bioluminescence. Simple text is augmented with informative sidebars. The animals highlighted come from all around the world, on land and at sea. This could be a great read-aloud to kick off the exploration of glowing animals.

 

Animal Research Project

As I mentioned before, there are a LOT of animals that glow. I thought this would make a great research project. Have each student pick an animal that glows and research it – there are enough glowing animals that every student can explore something different.

Have each student create a poster highlighting their glowing animal. Set up an exhibition, showing off all the amazing animals. Each poster should include:

  • Animal name
  • Where found – both habitat and geographic location. (Include a range map.)
  • Image of animal
    • For more fun, use glow-in-the-dark paints to illustrate where and what color the animal glows. Use a blacklight to show off the glow.
  • How it glows
    • What makes it glow? Bioluminescence, fluorescence, symbiosis?
  • When is animal active?
  • Why it glows?
  • Other fun facts

Alternatively, turn the research into one or more social media posts. Social media is a great way to impart information to lots of people. The National Park Service and US Fish and Wildlife Service do an exceptional job using social media. As I was preparing for this month’s post, I saw this social media post about glow-in-the-dark scorpions: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=916191667218097

Explore Your Backyard

Fireflies are perhaps the best-known glowing animal. Do a little exploration. Are there fireflies in your area? If not, should there be?

There is a firefly atlas you can explore to help with this: https://www.fireflyatlas.org/map. If you have fireflies in your area, look into how you can contribute to the map. Learn about how you can tell different fireflies apart by their blinking pattern.

If there should be fireflies in your area, but you don’t see any, examine why. What kind of habitat do fireflies need? What can you do to help provide that habitat?

If you don’t (and shouldn’t) have fireflies in your area, are there other local glowing animals and/or plants?

More Resources

You could use this month’s theme to jump into exploring light and/or color. There are also quite a few resources and activities out there that focus on bioluminescence. Here are a few.

NOAA Bioluminescence Education Theme: https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/themes/bioluminescence

Smithsonian Ocean: Bioluminescence: https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/fish/bioluminescence

WHOI: How does bioluminescence work? https://www.whoi.edu/know-your-ocean/did-you-know/how-does-bioluminescence-work

TeachEngineering: Exploring Bioluminescence in Aquatic Animals: https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/rice-2638-light-dyes-exploring-bioluminescence-activity

Science Buddies: Explore Glow-in-the-Dark Water! https://www.sciencebuddies.org/stem-activities/tonic-water-glows

Ocean Conservancy: Why Do Animals Glow? https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2019/08/06/animals-glow-bioluminescence


Janet Slingerland has written over 2 dozen books for young readers. One of her latest projects is creating firefly habitat in her backyard. To find out more about Janet and her books, check out her website: http://janetsbooks.com

STEM Tuesday– Glow in the Dark — Book List

Ever wonder about fireflies or glowing ocean waves? Scientists are discovering just how many plants and animals use biofluorescence, bioluminescence, and ultra-violet light and how we might use these phenomena in the future.  

Mysterious Glowing Mammals: An Unexpected Discovery Sparks a  Scientific Investigation by Maria Parrott-Ryan

When a forest ecologist took an ultraviolet flashlight outside one night, he discovered something unexpected – a flying squirrel that glowed bright pink! The squirrel wasn’t making its own light using chemicals. Instead, it absorbed UV light and released it as the pink glow. This book dives into biofluorescence in animals and outlines future directions for scientific study.

Nature at Night by Lisa Regan

This visually stunning photo-illustrated book explores the ways plants and animals use biofluorescence, bioluminescence, and ultra-violet light for hunting, mating, or camouflage. In addition to aquatic animals, it also examines some unusual land-based ones, such as fungi, click beetles, chameleons, polka dot tree frogs, swallowtail butterflies, scorpions, and puffins. Texturing on a number of pages provides a glow-in-the-dark feature and the pronunciation guides in the text and glossary help with the scientific terminology.

Curious Creatures Glowing in the Dark by Zoë Armstrong, illustrated by Anja Sušanj

A fascinating lower middle grade text, which combines an evaluation of biofluorescence and bioluminescence with a wide range of historic and recent research by scientists and some intriguing future possibilities. The engaging text, detailed illustrations, and “Just Like You“ sidebars relate the numerous animal’s use of light to human actions. 

Glow Down Deep: Amazing Creatures That Light Up by Lisa Regan

In this second glow-in-the-dark book, which focuses on biofluorescence and bioluminescence in the ocean, stunning close-up photographs stand out against dark backgrounds. Ranging from tiny krill to delicate sea pens and fanged dragonfish to the unusual chain catshark, this stunning book discusses many well-known and also lesser-known sea creatures and the myriad of reasons they use light, including unique methods of defense. Intriguing facts, pronunciation guides, “Did You Know” sidebars, and a glossary create a really engaging book on glowing sea life.

Living Light: Conserving Bioluminescent Plants and Animals (Orca Wild) by Stephen Aitken

This book explores light made and used by living organisms, from fireflies to fungi to creatures in the darkest deep ocean. It also shines a light on research using bioluminescence to learn more about cancer and other diseases in humans. It ends with environmental threats, and actions people can take to conserve habitats that glow-in-the-dark creatures depend on.

Glow: The Wild Wonders of Bioluminescence  by Jennifer N R Smith

An oversize overview of bioluminescent organisms. From fungal fairy lights to denizens of the deepest sea, this book shows how light is used to communicate, attract, protect, and warn. One section features the anatomy of bioluminescence, another highlights current research.

Lights on! Animals that glow (series) by Joyce Markovics

This series of six books highlights fireflies, octopuses and squid, deep sea fish, jellyfish, shrimp and krill, and plankton. Easy-to-understand explanation of how bioluminescence works, animal adaptations, and conservation issues.

DK Bioluminescent Animals by Ruth Musgrave

A great high-low reader about fascinating glowing creatures. This photo-illustrated book offers a quick note about glowing snails, fireflies, and railway worms, then dives into a look at bioluminescent animals in the sea. Exposing many using light to hide, form glowing goo, trick predators or prey, and stump scientists. Lots of detailed information and a glossary make this a great introduction to the science of  bioluminescence.

Cold Light: Creatures, Discoveries, and Inventions That Glow by Anita Sitarski

The conversational tone of this fascinating photo-illustrated book creates an easily accessible evaluation of the many scientists involved in the creation and study of the science of bioluminescence from 1602 to the invention of chemical luminescence and LEDs.   


This month’s STEM Tuesday book list was prepared by:

Sue Heavenrich, author

Sue Heavenrich, who writes about science for children and their families on topics ranging from space to backyard ecology. Bees, flies, squirrel behavior—things she observes in her neighborhood and around her home—inspire her writing. Visit her at www.sueheavenrich.com.

Maria Marshall, a children’s author, blogger, and poet who is passionate about making nature and reading fun for children. When not writing, critiquing, or reading, she watches birds, travels the world, bakes, and hikes. Visit her at www.mariacmarshall.com.