Exploration Activities
Explore the universe with these hands-on activities!
The Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars.
Scientists use a variety of tools to learn more about far-away places. Discover how
they design and use telescopes, rockets, and rovers to take pictures, search for exoplanets,
and look for signs of life.
Activities
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- Build a Model Spacecraft: Create a model spacecraft, and learn how scientists study the Earth from above.
- Design A Rover: Design and build a model rover to study the Solar System.
- Exoplanets Transit: Scientists can find exoplanets by looking for their shadow passing in front of the star they orbit. See what you can learn about a hidden object by studying its shadow!
- Filtered Light: Learn how scientists use colored filters to study the universe, and see images in a new light.
- Imagining Life: Learn about living things that have evolved to live in harsh environments on Earth, and imagine what life could look like on alien worlds!
- Launch A Stomp Rocket: Discover how some rockets carry science tools into outer space, then build and launch your own paper rockets. Watch how-to videos here!
- Objects in Motion: Use orbiting clay balls to make simple models of interacting objects in space.
- Outer Space Pretend Play: For young learners, let your imagination blast off into outer space!
- Pack A Space Telescope: Discover how engineers design space telescopes to fold inside rockets, and design and launch your own model telescope. Watch a how-to video here!
- Searching For Life: Conduct a simple experiment looking for signs of life in three different “soil” samples.
- Straw Rockets: Investigate how engineers design and test new rockets by creating a paper rocket and launching it from a straw.
Artist's rendition of the James Webb Space Telescope.
Return to Space Science Activities homepage.
This project was funded under NASA cooperative agreement NNX16AL65A and cooperative agreement number NNH15ZDA004C. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.