space experiments for high school

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Could Life Exist Below Mars Ice? NASA Study Proposes Possibilities

Hubble Captures a New View of Galaxy M90

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Old Data Yields New Secrets as NASA’s DAVINCI Preps for Venus Trip

NASA’s IXPE Helps Researchers Determine Shape of Black Hole Corona

NASA Selects Crew for 45-Day Simulated Mars Mission in Houston

What Human Health Science Should Be Done on Gateway Lunar Space Station?

NASA to Embrace Commercial Sector, Fly Out Legacy Relay Fleet 

Amendment 62: New Opportunity: A.61 INSPYRE Science Team

Amendment 17: B.5 Living With a Star Science: Several Small Updates

Amendment 59: A.12 Ocean Surface Topography Science Team Proposal Due Date Delay to October 31, 2024.

NASA’s Hubble Sees a Stellar Volcano

Amendment 60: New Opportunity: D.21 U.S. Contributions to Ariel Preparatory Science

S-MODE, ASIA-AQ, and the Role of ESPO in Complex Airborne Campaigns

What is Air Quality?

NASA and Partners Scaling to New Heights 

NASA Pilots Add Perspective to Research

NASA Spotlight: Felipe Valdez, an Inspiring Engineer

The View from Space Keeps Getting Better  

Pioneering NASA Astronaut Health Tech Thwarts Heart Failure

Journey Through Stars with NASA in New Minecraft Game

Five Years Ago: First All Woman Spacewalk

Sacrificio y Éxito: Ingeniero de la NASA honra sus orígenes familiares

Una reunión familiar de la NASA por casualidad

Una gerente de proyectos de la NASA rinde homenaje a la influencia de su madre

Nasa stem opportunities and activities for students.

Multiple challenges and opportunities reaching a broad audience of middle and high schools, colleges, and universities across the nation.

The new Lunar Autonomy Challenge invites teams of students from U.S. colleges and universities to test their software development skills.…

The agriculture industry faces several challenges, including limited resources and growing demands to reduce agriculture’s environmental impact while increasing its…

The 2025 RASC-AL Competition is seeking undergraduate and graduate teams to develop new concepts that leverage innovation to improve our…

Middle/high school student teams are invited to submit science and technology experiment ideas to fly on a suborbital flight platform.

NASA invites innovators, technologists, storytellers, and problem solvers to register for the 2024 NASA Space Apps Challenge, the largest annual…

Challenges are designed to build student knowledge and skills in STEM by focusing on NASA's goals, collaboration, and career pathways.

A multi-semester undergraduate level challenge to design and build prototypes for technologies needed in support of the Artemis mission. 

A real-world experience for college and university students and their advisors to develop technology needed to support NASA’s exploration goals.

Students ages 13-18, come dream with NASA Aeronautics and help us envision and market a more sustainable commercial aircraft.

University-level competition for teams to use the NASA systems engineering process to design, build, and operate a lunar robot.

A year-long commitment for Texas high school juniors related to space exploration, Earth science, technology, and aeronautics.

Middle/high school and college-level student teams design, build, test, and launch a high-powered rocket carrying a scientific or engineering payload.

A project based learning program for high school students to learn skills by designing and fabricating valued products for NASA.

A coding challenge in which NASA presents technical problems to middle/ high school students.

NASA SUITS challenges undergraduate or graduate students to design and create spacesuit information displays within augmented reality (AR) environments.

Undergraduate students design, build, and test a tool or device that addresses an authentic, current space exploration challenge.

Teams of high school and college students design, develop, build, and test human-powered rovers capable of traversing challenging terrain.

Launch your Future: NASA OSTEM Internships Virtual Webinars Join NASA Internships for an exclusive virtual event showcasing a vibrant and…

The competition offers Tribal college-level students the opportunity to demonstrate engineering and design skills through direct application in high-powered rocketry.

MITTIC is seeking Historically Black College and University and Minority Serving Institution teams of students from all fields of study to rise…

Teams of professionals and young people are challenged to solve an engineering design problem in a competitive way.

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Explore the wonder of space exploration from home. Here you can find out how to make rockets, Mars rovers and Moon landers out of materials you have at home. Scroll down to explore educational activities families can do at home, video tutorials (available with subtitles en Español ) and an FAQ. Be sure to check back. We're adding more all the time!

How We Use Coding to Explore Mars

Learn how we use coding to build and operate Mars rovers and the Mars helicopter, then follow along with coding projects from NASA.

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• Activity Code a Mars Helicopter Video Game

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Grades 9-12

Are you interested in space, robots, building and exploring? At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, we build robots that explore space and you can explore space with us at home! Find projects to build a cardboard rover , watch videos about landing on Mars , build your own space mission and learn something new about the Moon . Plus explore more at the links below!

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• › NASA Space Place
• › NASA Learning Resources for Grades K-4
• › 10 Things to Do With NASA at Home
• › Standards-aligned lessons for educators

Make a Scale Solar System

mathematics

Build a Rover and More With Shapes

Building With Spaghetti

engineering

Solar System Size and Distance

Build a Rocket and More With Shapes

Write a Poem About Space

NASA Space Poetry

The Types of Clouds and What They Mean

How Melting Ice Causes Sea Level Rise

Make a Paper Mars Helicopter

Make a Moon Crater

Imagine You're an Astronaut

Build Your Own Space Mission

The Space We Love

What's That Space Rock?

Can You Spot Mercury?

RoverView 3-D Glasses

Space School Musical

Video Series

Mars in a Minute

Space Shorts

Make a Cloud Mobile

Calling future space explorers! NASA-JPL designs, builds, tests and operates robotic spacecraft that explore the solar system . Join us on our adventure from home, where you can learn where the Sun gets its energy , program a Mars rover game , and build an origami Starshade . Plus explore more at the links below!

The NASA Pi Day Challenge

18 Ways NASA Uses Pi

Code a Mars Sample Collection Video Game

Explore Rocks Using Core Sampling

Describe Rocks Like a NASA Scientist

Make a Paper Glider

Land a Spacecraft on Target

Explore Earth and Space With Art - Now Including Mars!

How Warming Water Causes Sea Level Rise

Make a Water Filter

Make a Volcano

Code a Mars Helicopter Video Game

Make a Moon Phases Calendar and Calculator - New for 2024

Make a Moon or Mars Rover Game

Space Origami: Make Your Own Starshade

The Change of Seasons: Views from Space

Make a Cardboard Rover

Make an Astronaut Lander

Make a Straw Rocket

Make a Cloud in a Bottle

Make a Hovercraft

Dancing Uranus

Look at the Moon! Journaling Project

Mysteries of the Solar System and Beyond

How Does NASA Spot a Near-Earth Asteroid?

Ocean Worlds

Make a Jupiter Orbiter

Exploring Jupiter

How Many Decimals of Pi Do You Need?

Mathematics

Is Time Travel Possible?

Make a Planet Cutout You Can Wear

Make Handprint Art Using Ultraviolet Light!

Interactive

What's in the Atmosphere

What Is a Volcano?

Earth's Atmosphere

Why Does NASA Study Earth?

Space Place in a Snap

Calling all middle school students: NASA-JPL uses robots to explore the solar system and learn more about Earth , and you can explore right along with us! Learn how to command a Mars rover by programming your own video game , build a model of a Jupiter-orbiting spacecraft to investigate magnetism, engineer a lunar lander to protect astronauts, observe the changing seasons from space , and a whole lot more. Plus, check out the links below and keep an eye out for more fun stuff.

• › NASA Learning Resources for Grades 5-8

NASA Climate Quizzes

Are you interested in taking on challenges, doing projects and learning about science with NASA? Try your hand at engineering a rover , learn how origami is used in building spacecraft , get the scoop on black holes , or even program your own video game ! Boost your knowledge on science topics by tuning into talks by JPL scientists and engineers , learning more about climate change , and participating in NASA citizen science !

• › Build a working mechanical rover

Code a Mars Landing

How to Do a Science Fair Project

Black Holes: By the Numbers

Bouncing Radio Waves Off Titan's Lakes

NASA's Earth Minute

How can I manage my child’s learning while working from home?

Consider blocking a daily schedule in a way that gives you time to get them started, whether that’s giving instruction about a topic or concept, having them start on teacher-assigned work or getting them started with an online course. Give them a series of projects or assignments to work on independently while you have a chance to work.

As they work, if they have questions, they can write them down and continue, or move on to the next independent task. Then have a check-in time with you where you can go over their questions, check the progress of their work, etc. Perhaps repeat that schedule several times throughout the day.

If they get stuck or finish with their tasks and you’re still working or it’s not time to check in yet, they can have a selection of other things they can do until that time. This might mean their school day is extended, but with longer or more frequent breaks throughout the day to accommodate your need to work. If you’ve got a parenting partner, try alternating whose turn it is for instruction in the morning, and alternate check-in breaks.

I have children of varying ages. How can I get them all involved?

It’s best to have kids working at a level that is comfortable, yet challenging, for them. Sometimes, pairing older and younger kids together for a task can yield amazing results and learning for both.

Talk to your older children about asking good questions as they involve younger children and letting the younger children make some decisions in the process. Also, have older children demonstrate a model they’ve built for younger kids.

Let the younger kids play with the model and ask questions of the older children. Explain to older children that one of the best ways to learn about something is to teach it and to answer the sometimes simple but tough questions a younger child will ask.

If I can’t get to everything, what is most important?

A full day of teaching, parenting and working is probably not in the cards for most people. Instead, consider starting with a shorter day of instruction that works for you and your child, and building up to a longer day as everyone adjusts.

When all else fails, reading is a sure bet. Whether it’s fiction, non-fiction, comic books or magazine articles, reading or being read to is beneficial.

If there are specific subjects that your child struggles in, or excels in, focus on those. Remember, anything you’re able to do is better than nothing.

What if I don’t have all the listed materials for an activity?

Many of our activity materials are quite flexible and the activities are totally doable with other materials. It's ok to substitute other materials or, if possible, leave some out. In fact, finding creative solutions to a problem is what many of our activities are about and it's something NASA engineers and scientists do every day. Make it part of the learning process!

What questions should I ask my child about what they are doing?

Asking your child questions is one of the best things you can do. You don’t need to have all the answers. In fact, learning alongside them can be a lot of fun – for them and for you!

Ask them to explain what they are doing and what their goal is. Once they are done, have them show you what they’ve accomplished. Ask them: How did you go about solving this problem? Is this your first try at this? How does it work? Does it work the way you want it to? Is there something you could do to improve your design? How do you decide whether you have the best working model?

How will I know when my child has the right answer?

Most of our activities are discovery-based and have a number of “right” answers or positive outcomes. If the activity is an engineering challenge in which kids need to build something that works, you’ll be able to tell if they get a working model. It’s always a good idea to ask them, “Is there something you can improve on to get even better results?”

If the activity is math-based, you can find the answers on our website, sometimes on the lesson guides . Also, keep in mind that you don’t need to have all the answers. Having kids explore and learn on their own is empowering to them and teaches them they are capable!