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
