Smokies partners are giving fifth-grade classrooms in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina additional time to engage in a unique learning opportunity and the chance to win a fun-filled trip to Dollywood to experience its newest attraction, NightFlight Expedition. The “Glow Life” contest deadline has been extended three weeks to Friday, Dec. 4, to give students and their teachers time to complete the short, ready-made curriculum unit and organize a contest entry for their class submission.
The “Glow Life” project is centered on a science curriculum about a fascinating aspect of biology in Great Smoky Mountains National Park: the phenomena of bioluminescence and biofluorescence.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is considered the most biodiverse of all the U.S. national parks, home to the largest variety of animals, plants, insects, fungi, and other living organisms.
When night falls in the Smokies, the landscape often takes on a beguiling glow generated by two marvels of nature: bioluminescence and biofluorescence. Bioluminescence occurs when living organisms produce light due to a chemical reaction, while biofluorescence occurs when an organism absorbs ultraviolet or blue light and emits it in another color, typically red, orange, or green.
Classrooms are encouraged to make a creation of their own in a medium of their choosing, exploring bioluminescence and biofluorescence and their importance to living things in the Smokies. Projects can be an essay, art project, play, video, song, imagining a new bioluminescent creature or something else altogether. For details on how to participate in “Glow Life,” visit glowlife.smokieslife.org .