Day 3: Luminescense
STEP 1: Earlier, when making slime, you watched a short video that introduced the basic idea of bioluminescence—the ability of some living organisms to produce their own light. Now, you’ll watch a new set of videos that dive deeper into this fascinating phenomenon.
STEP 2: You learned that living things like jellyfish and fireflies glow using bioluminescence—light made by chemical reactions in their bodies. Now we’ll look at chemiluminescence, which is light made by a chemical reaction in a non-living thing, like a glow stick.
Watch the video below to learn more. Then, repeat the experiment from the video by
placing one glow stick in cold water, one in warm water, and one in room temperature. Watch what happens to the glow in each one.
STEP 3: Now that you’ve learned about bioluminescence (glowing in living things) and chemiluminescence (glowing from chemical reactions like in glow sticks), let’s make your own glowing “firefly”—but this time using a third kind of light: LEDs!
LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) glow when electricity flows through a tiny chip. This isn’t a chemical reaction like in glow sticks or fireflies—it’s a light made by energy moving through a circuit. Today, you’ll use an LED to represent the glow of a firefly, like a tiny glowing bug.
Watch the video below to learn how to safely power your LED. Then build your glowing firefly and decorate it using pens from your chromatography experiment or any other fun materials you like!
STEP 4: When you’re happy with your “firefly,” take a clear photo of it glowing and use the QR code below to upload your picture. Be sure to type your first name in the “Subject” line when you upload. Click here to see all posts.
