May/June 2024

Let it Glow!

Reading Checkpoint: Let It Glow!

Use your Science Spin to find the best answer to each question.

 

1. What can the jellyfish do if a predator comes?
(It can flash its bright lights.)

2. It can flash its bright lights.
(shrimp)

3. How does the anglerfish catch food?
(It uses a blinking light under its eye.)

4. Draw your favorite glowing animal from the article.
(Answers will vary.)

 Go online to print or project the Reading Checkpoint.

FUN FACTS TO SHARE!

  • As scientists use technology to dive deeper into the dark bottom of the sea, they have learned that MOST deep-sea animals are bioluminescent. They glow.
  • That’s not all! Scientists are also discovering that a surprising number of mammals some mice, koala bears, and bats—glow in the dark when you shine a special black-light flashlight on them.

HANDS-ON STEM ACTIVITY

Be Classroom Detectives: Which Objects Make Their Own Light?

Materials: a windowed classroom filled with objects, pencils, copies of the skill sheet   

Overview: We need light to see. Students learned that bioluminescent animals are visible in the dark sea because they make their own light. Here, kids survey their own environment to see which objects make their own light and which ones don’t.

Directions:

  1. Remind kids that we need light to see. Light can come from a source like a lamp that we use to see the words and pictures in a book.
  2. The lamp is a source of light. It makes its own light. Which other objects make their own light? Which objects don’t make their own light but rely on something like a lamp so we can see it?
  3. Tell kids they’ll be detectives to identify which objects around them make their own light, and which don’t.
  4. Pass out the skill sheets. Kids work individually, or in teams, recording answers on the skill sheets.
  5. Share results if there’s time. Kids can share any of their own observations too!