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Spider Spotting at Night

Activity

How Animal Eyes Adapt to Darkness

Hunt for spiders in the dark. Hold a headlamp or bright beam of light on your forehead facing into a grassy area. With loose focus, locate a glittering or twinkling spot as you move the light across the ground. Keep your eyes on the twinkling spot as you walk up to it to get a closer look. Can you identify what kind of spider it is?

Science Seed

Nocturnal animal eyes have a reflective membrane that allows them to gather twice the amount of light. Most nocturnal animals can see in the dark because the low light passes through the lens of the eye, bounces off the reflective membrane, or tapetum, and passes through the lens a second time, doubling the light gathered. The light reflecting off the tapetum is what causes eye shine in cats, spiders and other nocturnal animals. The light emitted from a source close to your own eyes shines into the spider’s eyes and bounces back to your own eyes making the twinkling reflected light visible. The angle of reflection of light from your forehead to the spider and back to your eyes allows you to see the spider.

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earn Badges

Badges can be earned through hands-on experiences within each of the 16 branches of science, or “Science Slices.” You can earn a badge in each branch of science by doing four activities in these categories. We also encourage participants to keep a Nature Journal to record their memories, and to express themselves creatively through writing or drawing after each activity. We recommend that each child (and parent if they’d like) write or draw in a journal after each activity, with expectations of your children that match their age (the goal is self-expression, not perfection).

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join Families in Nature

It is our vision to inspire all families to fall in love with nature and foster the next generation of conservationists. Becoming a member of Families in Nature will give your family the opportunity to have adventures in nature, experience field science, develop as youth conservation leaders, and make memories that will last a lifetime. Memberships are free for everyone.

Who are we?

Families in Nature works to create opportunities for nature connection with the purpose of sparking a deep love and desire to protect, conserve and restore the environment. Our mission is to connect children and their families to nature and to each other through time spent learning, playing, and volunteering outdoors. It is our vision to inspire ALL families to fall in love with nature and foster the next generation of conservationists.