Glow-in-the-dark isn’t a phenomenon reserved for Fourth of July parties and laser tag games. Smokies species ranging from fireflies to flying squirrels have natural adaptations that allow them to emit light, bringing a whole new world to life when the sun goes down.

“There’s magic in the dark,” said Will Kuhn, director of science and research for Discover Life in America, a partner of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

DLiA, Smokies Life, and Dollywood Parks & Resorts are working together to spread that magic through a new initiative called Glow Life, a science curriculum for fifth-grade classrooms in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina that culminates with a creative contest opportunity.

Winners will receive a trip for themselves and their entire classroom to experience Dollywood’s newest attraction, NightFlight Expedition. The immersive indoor adventure coaster allows adventurers to fly backward and forward from majestic peaks to churning rapids and glide across a shimmering lake. Immersed in the Smokies’ hidden depths after dark, they explore uncharted territory, searching for radiant light emanating from bioluminescent creatures and plants.

“We hope Glow Life helps teachers across our region encourage their students’ growth and achievement in science and, ultimately, deepen their love and appreciation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park,” said Carol Agee, Dollywood’s community affairs and philanthropy manager.

Making light in the dark

For the species that do it, glowing is an adaptation that helps them to survive and reproduce by making it easier to hide from predators, find mates, protect themselves from harmful radiation, lure in prey, or even navigate. Glowing creatures use one of two different mechanisms to give off light: bioluminescence and biofluorescence.

Bioluminescence—the ability to produce light by combining chemicals called luciferin and luciferase—is probably the most familiar. It includes the park’s most well-known glowers: fireflies.

At least 19 different species of bioluminescent firefly live in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They all glow during the larval stage, but only 13 of them emit the showy flashing courtship displays as adult males for which fireflies are most noted. Each of these species has a slightly different preferred habitat, seasonality, and time of night for this display, creating the opportunity to see a variety of treetop twinkles and field flashes throughout the summer.

But fireflies are far from being the only organisms that bioluminesce. The Smokies contains at least three other types of insects and 19 different fungi species that emit their own light, Kuhn said.

Biofluorescent species make up an even larger category of light-emitting creatures, and they rely on an entirely different mechanism to glow.  

“They don’t create their own light, but they glow by changing light from outside sources like the moon,” Kuhn explained. “Humans can’t always see this biofluorescence, but if you hike outside after dark with a black light flashlight, you’ll be amazed at how many different organisms glow.”

Black lights emit ultraviolet light, which has shorter wavelengths and higher energy than the spectrum visible to human eyes. Daylight washes out the glow from biofluorescent organisms, but shining a black light in the dark provides the wavelengths these species need to create their own colors and allows humans to see the show.

Beauty under black light

Inspired by the wonder of night life in the park, this summer Smokies Life Graphic Designer Miranda Bemis and her family took to the woods in search of biofluorescence. They started the hunt in a patch of woods close to their house. Shining the black light on sticks and tree trunks, they saw various patches of lichen leap to life, emitting vibrant colors far removed from the subtle shades of green visible during the daytime.

“After seeing small-scale what we could do here, it was time to go into the park,” Bemis said.

So the family set out for a nighttime trip to the Tremont area. At first, the kids, ages 9 and 12, were nervous about being in the woods at night. But helping them to get over that fear to see the beauty in the dark was part of the goal.

“There’s a lot more beyond what you can see in the daylight,” Bemis said, “and yeah, things can look creepy and scary, but they’re still really cool.”

They shined the black light on tree trunk after tree trunk, sometimes finding nothing of note and other times gasping as large swaths of lichen leapt out in neon colors. It was surprising how much the forest transformed under UV light, she said. Even things that aren’t technically biofluorescent—anything white, for instance, is going to glow under UV.

It was a fruitful adventure, but for Bemis and her family there is still more to see. The list of biofluorescent creatures in the Smokies includes a variety of species they have yet to spot: salamanders, birds, millipedes, scorpions, insects, various plants, and even mammals like flying squirrels.

“I just find beauty in things that are not always what they seem,” Bemis said.

Invitation to create

The Glow Life curriculum encourages kids to do their own exploration as they learn about what happens in the Smokies when the sun goes down. It includes free lesson plans and an educational video designed to meet the learning standards for fifth-grade classrooms in Tennessee and North Carolina.

The curriculum also invites kids to enter the Glow Life contest and make a creation of their own, in the medium of their choosing, that explores how bioluminescence and biofluorescence are important to living things in the Smokies. It could take the form of an essay, art project, play, video, song, imagining a new bioluminescent creature, or something else altogether.

“Synchronous fireflies have brought worldwide attention to the science and beauty of bioluminescence found in the national park,” said Todd Witcher, executive director of DLiA. “The Glow Life contest encourages scientific exploration beyond fireflies to an abundance of other bioluminescent and biofluorescent organisms, from mushrooms to salamanders, inviting students to explore the how, what, and why of Smokies species that seem like magic.”

The entries will be judged based on creativity, quality, and understanding of the material. Five winners will earn a free trip to Dollywood—including the new NightFlight ride—for their entire classroom.

“It is exciting to find new ways to ignite curiosity for the next generation of scientists and stewards of the Smokies through the Glow Life project,” said Smokies Life CEO Jacqueline Harp. “We hope that this curriculum and contest will be a great resource for teachers and encourage students to connect to the many things to discover in the park.”

For more information about the Glow Life contest and curriculum, visit GlowLife.SmokiesLife.org. The contest deadline is Friday, November 13.

Whether day or night, always stay safe when venturing into the park. Risk of falls and wildlife encounters is higher at night, so when visiting in the dark, stay close to your vehicle, wear good shoes, and bring a flashlight.

Holly Kays is the lead writer for the 29,000-member Smokies Life, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the scientific, historical, and interpretive activities of Great Smoky Mountains National Park by providing educational products and services such as this column. Learn more at SmokiesLife.org, or reach the author at hollyk@smokieslife.org.