Posts Tagged Research

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– Survival Science — In the Classroom

 

When we talk about animals, we are usually talking about their biological make-up: How they look, what they eat, where they live, and how they interact with other animals. But this month we are focusing on a different topic. It’s more about how animals survive in the wild. This is an important idea and one that is a good to explore with your students. Especially because as climates change and humans move into their habitats, animals are needing to work harder to survive.

There are many great books to use in the classroom on our Species Survival  list this month. Here are a few activities that you can use in your classroom:

 

Hopping Ahead of Climate Change book

Hopping Ahead of Climate Change: Snowshoe Hares, Science, and Survival

by Sneed Collard

This book takes a look at whether animals are able to adapt to climate change to survive. The snowshoe hare is white because normally it is found in areas with a lot of snow. But if those areas have shorter snow periods, its white coat, which normally allows it to hide in plain sight, becomes a very big hindrance. So much so, that it makes itself stand out amongst the greens and browns of the trees, grass, and dirt. This is makes it easy prey for a predator!

 

 

Classroom Activity

What traits do animals have that allow them to blend in with their surroundings. Have the students do some research to discover three animals that use their colors as camoflauge  They can start with the snowshoe hare, but come up with two more. There are many of them to choose from. If they can’t think of any, prompt them with: Snake, shark, giraffe, tigers, etc.  Using these animals, have students answer the following questions:

  1. How does the color of the animal help them to blend in with their surroundings?
  2. Does this animal have a pattern that also helps? and if so, how?
  3. Do you think these colors and patterns help them during specific times of the year?
  4. Would their colors and patterns help more in particular seasons of the year or not?
  5. How would that change if the seasons were lengthened or shortened due to climate change?

Have a discussion with the class. Maybe even have the students draw their animals in their original habitat before and after climate change effects to see the difference.

 

History Comics: The American Bison: The Buffalo’s Survival TaleThe American Bison book

Written and illustrated by Andy Hirsch

While some may be familiar with the history of how great herds of bison roamed across the plains, it might come as a surprise that these creatures not only benefited Native Americans, but also the land on which they lived. This book explores the fascinating ecologicial “triangle” relationship between bison, the prairie grasses of the West, and the Native Americans that lived there. The graphic novel form makes this book easily accessible and fun for kids to read and offers great imagery for teachers to use in their classroom.

Classroom Activity

How can animals actually benefit the environment in which they live? Bison used their own mucus (or snot) to reseed grasses across the prairie. Read the book to learn more about this fascinating trait that allowed bison to also digest the grasses and eat them. Without the bison, the prairie grass had a difficult time growing and expanding across the land. How did the Native Americans help? They provided places with lots of grass for the bison to graze. Discuss how this worked for that environment.

  1. How exactly did the bison use their mucus to eat food?
  2. How were the microbes in the soil beneficial to the bison?
  3. What is cellulose and why is it so hard to digest?
  4. How did the Native Americans use the grasses to bring bison to their area?

Have a discussion with the class about what they have discovered. Can you think of other animals that might have a similar relationship to their own environment?

 

The Nocturnals Explore Unique Adaptations of Nighttime AnimalsUnique Adaptations of Nighttime Animals

Written by Tracey Hecht

This book takes a look at species survival from the point of view of nocturnal animals. But it presents lesser known animals like the pangolin, woylie, tuatara, aya-aye, and jerboa. It not only features facts but also includes narrative stories about each animal so children can learn about the animals’ nocturnal habits and special adaptations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Classroom Activity

Have a discussion about nocturnal animals and how they interact with their environments. The cool thing about this book is that it allows for a discussion about nocturnal animals that students may not be familiar with.

  1. What traits make an animal nocturnal?
  2. How are nocturnal animals different from diurnal or crepucular?
  3. Why do you think it might be more difficult for an animal that comes out at night to survive?
  4. Learn about two or three unusual nocturnal animals that you may not have known

Have students pick one nocturnal animal, unknown to them, and draw it, give 3 clues about its habitat, and discuss how it might survive. Have them present their animals to the class. You could even do this as a “Name that animal” type of game and have the student give clues while the other members of the class guess what it is.

 

The other books in this list all lend themselves to wonderful discussions in the classroom about how animals survive in the wild. Many of these authors also have more information on their websites. So be sure to check them out! This is a great topic for getting your students excited about animals, and getting them to explore unusual environments as they consider how they have a impact on the world.

 

************************************************************************************************************

Jennifer Swanson author

Jennifer Swanson is the award-winning author of 50 books for kids. She is passionate about STEM/STEAM and is the creator of  STEM Tuesday, STEAMTeam Books, and the Solve It! for Kids Podcast. Her views on writing are “For me, writing STEM/STEAM books is about having a conversation with a young reader. It’s about getting them excited about the topic so that they get curious, ask questions, and want to explore more on their own.” www.jenniferswansonbooks.com

STEM Tuesday — Animal Perceptions– In the Classroom

This month’s books delve into the mysterious senses and minds of different creatures. How do they communicate and use tools? What kinds of sounds do they make and what do they mean? Can we ever know what they think? Endlessly fascinating, these ideas are sure to spark wonder and inspire more questions in the classroom. Here are a few ways to explore animal perceptions with your students.

Beastly Brains: How Animals Think, Talk, and Feel
by Nancy Castaldo

Castaldo delves into the minds of animals like dolphins, dogs, and elephants to explore animal empathy, communication, tool use, and lifestyle through interviews and historical anecdotes. The book also mentions research from some great minds, such as Charles Darwin and Jane Goodall, regarding the behavior of animals and revolutionizes old theories through the lens of modern science.

 

Worm Jar Activity: In this book, Castaldo describes Darwin’s study of worms to determine if worm’s have intelligence. His observations about how worms moved leaves led him to conclude that they are thinking creatures with intelligence. With this activity, students can make their own observations about worm behavior by making a worm jar and observing the worms inside, recording their data, and coming to a conclusion. To make the worm jar, they will need:

  • mason jar
  • jar lid with holes
  • soil, sand, grass, mulch, or other organic materials from the ground
  • garden trowel and worms
  • very small pieces of vegetables or fruit (such as lettuce, apple, celery leaves)
  • dark construction paper and tape
  • observation notebook

Have students layer different ground materials in the jar until it is around 3/4 full. Dig in wet soil to find earthworms and put a few in the jar. Add the small pieces of vegetables or fruit at the top and then cover with the lid. Then wrap the black paper around the jar and tape so that the worms will be in darkness, just like being underground.

Tell students to think of something they wonder about the worms in their jar and write it down inter observation notebook. Then have them check not heir worms each day by untaping the paper and seeing what is happening inside the jar. Tell students to write their observations each day in their notebook. After a few weeks, ask students to look through their observations to see if they have been able to answer their question at the beginning of the experiment. Do they have a conclusion they can share with others about their worms?


Sensational Senses: Amazing Ways Animals Perceive the World
by Rebecca E. Hirsch

From star-nosed moles to Japanese sea catfish, each of the eight chapters in this book dives deep into the amazing sensory abilities of a different animal. Hirsch’s clear text combines with eye-popping photographs to show readers how these extraordinary animals can sense things in the world that are hidden to humans.

 

Super Senses Comics Activity: The creatures in Hirsch’s book have some incredible powers, almost like comic book characters. For examples, the star-nosed mole uses its incredible sense of touch to hunt food in the darkness of its underground world. After reading through the book, provide students with a blank comic book storyboard (like this or this) or direct them to free storyboarding software. Here are a few to try:

Tell students to choose an animal and its super power from the book, and to think of a story that involves that creature using that super power. They can then create a comic that tells their story, adding images and dialogue to the panels of their comic strip. What problem does their creature solve? How does it use its special sense? Practice providing feedback and revising to help students develop and share their stories. Then create a gallery on the wall to display students’ comics!

 


Karen Latchana Kenney loves to write books about animals, and looks for them wherever she goes—from leafcutter ants trailing through the Amazon rain forest in Guyana, where she was born, to puffins in cliff-side burrows on the Irish island of Skellig Michael. She especially enjoys creating books about nature, biodiversity, conservation, and groundbreaking scientific discoveries—but also writes about civil rights, astronomy, historical moments, and many other topics. Visit her at https://latchanakenney.wordpress.com