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PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Planet order rescue

15 minutes · Paper · Pencil · Eight small paper name cards

Your investigation

  1. Write these mixed names on cards: Neptune, Earth, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Mars, Saturn.
  2. Draw the Sun at the left of your page. Arrange the cards from nearest to farthest planet.
  3. Check the order, then add the Moon beside its planet and label the Sun as a star.
  4. Write “sizes and distances not to scale” beneath your map.

Think, draw, explain

Which two planets are Earth’s neighbors in the order?

Why should the Moon not become the ninth planet in this row?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Sort a suitcase of worlds

20 minutes · Paper · Pencil

Your investigation

  1. Make five headings: star, planet, dwarf planet, moon, small Solar System body.
  2. Place Sun, Earth, Neptune, Pluto, Moon, an asteroid, and a comet under headings.
  3. Write one reason for every placement. Make an “I need more evidence” box for an unknown object.
  4. Invent a clue for one object and ask a partner to classify it.

Think, draw, explain

Can an object be important even if it is not a planet?

What evidence would help classify an unfamiliar object?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Rocky worlds and giant worlds

20 minutes · Paper · Pencil · Colored pencils

Your investigation

  1. Draw eight empty boxes and label them with the eight planets in order.
  2. Mark Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars as rocky planets. Mark Jupiter and Saturn as gas giants, Uranus and Neptune as ice giants.
  3. Choose one rocky world and one giant. Draw a probe for each and label whether it could land on solid ground.
  4. Add one question your probe should investigate.

Think, draw, explain

Which four have rocky surfaces?

Does “ice giant” describe an ordinary frozen ball?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Two-world postcard exchange

25 minutes · Paper · Pencil · Two knowledge cards from this library

Your investigation

  1. Choose two different planets and divide a page into two postcards.
  2. On each, draw a landscape or cloud view and write three facts from the knowledge card.
  3. Add a visitor warning based on real conditions, without pretending people could stand on giant-planet clouds.
  4. Write a reply explaining one important difference between the worlds.

Think, draw, explain

Which detail in your picture is supported by evidence?

Which detail is an artistic choice?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

The hottest-world mystery

15 minutes · Paper · Pencil

Your investigation

  1. Write two hypotheses: “closest always means hottest” and “atmospheres can change temperature.”
  2. Draw Mercury near the Sun and Venus a little farther out. Give Venus a thick atmosphere label and Mercury a very thin exosphere label.
  3. Read the Mercury and Venus cards. Circle which hypothesis the comparison supports.
  4. Write a short evidence-based explanation for a younger explorer.

Think, draw, explain

Which world has the hotter surface overall?

What else, besides distance, should a temperature explanation consider?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Seven-visit Moon diary

10 minutes · Paper · Pencil · An adult companion for outdoor observation

Your investigation

  1. Draw seven observation boxes with spaces for date, time, cloud conditions, and a Moon sketch.
  2. With an adult in a safe place, look for the Moon over seven different visits. Never search near the Sun; stop if it is not clearly safe.
  3. Sketch what you see without binoculars or a telescope. Record “not visible” or “cloudy” honestly when needed.
  4. Compare the drawings with the Moon phases card. Seven visits may show only part of the month-long cycle.

Think, draw, explain

Did the Moon’s outline seem to change?

Does “not visible” prove the Moon disappeared?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Half-lit Moon tabletop

20 minutes · A small ball · A low-power flashlight · Paper · An adult helper

Your investigation

  1. Use a low-power flashlight as a pretend Sun indoors. Keep its beam away from eyes.
  2. Place a ball on a table. Stand at different positions around it, leaving the lamp in the same place.
  3. Sketch how much of the ball’s lit half you can see from four positions. Do not use your head to block the lamp.
  4. Label the sketch “a lighting model; sizes and distances not to scale.”

Think, draw, explain

Has the ball changed shape?

Does the lamp illuminate only the little crescent you can see?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Indoor shadow cartographer

20 minutes · Low-power flashlight · An upright toy · Paper · Pencil · Ruler

Your investigation

  1. Place a toy on paper indoors. Ask an adult to help keep a flashlight steady and pointed away from eyes.
  2. Mark three lamp positions at the same distance from the toy but at low, medium, and high angles.
  3. Trace and measure the toy’s shadow at each position. Keep the toy and paper still.
  4. Draw a simple table of lamp angle and shadow length, then predict a fourth result.

Think, draw, explain

Which lamp position made the longest shadow?

Why keep the toy and distance the same?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Opposite-season detectives

20 minutes · Paper · Pencil · Earth seasons knowledge card

Your investigation

  1. Draw Earth in two places on opposite sides of an imaginary orbit. Keep its tilted axis pointing in the same direction on both drawings.
  2. Label the northern hemisphere tilted toward the Sun in one position and away in the other.
  3. Make a two-column chart for Sweden and Australia, adding summer or winter at each position.
  4. Write a sentence explaining why distance alone cannot explain opposite seasons.

Think, draw, explain

When Sweden has summer, which season does Australia have?

What changes the amount of sunlight reaching a hemisphere?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Indoor eclipse theater

25 minutes · Low-power flashlight · Two different-size balls · Paper · An adult helper

Your investigation

  1. Indoors, ask an adult to aim a low-power flashlight away from eyes. Use it only as a pretend Sun.
  2. Arrange flashlight, small Moon ball, and larger Earth ball in a line. Find where the Moon ball’s shadow falls.
  3. Switch to flashlight, Earth ball, Moon ball. Sketch where Earth’s shadow falls.
  4. Move the Moon ball above the line and note why the shadow misses. Mark all diagrams “not to scale.”

Think, draw, explain

Which object is in the middle for a solar eclipse?

Why does a full Moon not cause an eclipse every month?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Two motions, one paper Earth

15 minutes · Paper · Pencil · A coin or cardboard disk

Your investigation

  1. Draw a Sun at the center of a page and an orbit around it. Place a disk on the orbit as Earth.
  2. Mark a dot on one side of the disk. Turn the disk in place and label that movement “rotation.”
  3. Move it once around the drawn path and label that movement “orbit.”
  4. Draw separate arrows for the two motions. Explain the distinction to a partner.

Think, draw, explain

Which movement helps explain day and night?

Which movement defines an Earth year?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Orbit artist, model critic

20 minutes · Paper · Pencil · A round lid for tracing, optional

Your investigation

  1. Draw one circle-like orbit and one very stretched oval. Put a pretend Sun near the center of the circle and off-center inside the oval.
  2. Draw arrows to show a traveler’s direction and label each line as a guide, not a physical rail.
  3. Write two limitations of your model, including that most planetary orbits are only mildly oval.
  4. Add a sentence about gravity bending a moving object’s path.

Think, draw, explain

Are real orbit lines glowing tracks in space?

Does an orbiting planet need a road beneath it?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Moon luggage calculator

20 minutes · Paper · Pencil · Calculator, optional

Your investigation

  1. Pretend a luggage scale reads 6, 12, and 18 units on Earth for three different bags.
  2. Use the classroom approximation that Moon surface weight is one-sixth of Earth surface weight. Calculate each Moon reading.
  3. Draw the same bag on both worlds and label its mass as unchanged.
  4. Write what a weaker gravity field changes, and what it does not.

Think, draw, explain

What are the three Moon readings?

Would the bag contain fewer things on the Moon?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

A Solar System number line

25 minutes · Long paper strip · Pencil · Ruler

Your investigation

  1. Draw a distance line using 1 centimeter for 1 astronomical unit (AU). Mark the Sun at zero.
  2. Mark these rounded average distances in AU: Mercury 0.4, Venus 0.7, Earth 1.0, Mars 1.5, Jupiter 5.2, Saturn 9.6, Uranus 19.2, Neptune 30.1.
  3. If your paper is too short, join strips or change every distance using the same scale.
  4. Use dots, not planet-sized circles, and label “average distances to scale; planet sizes not to scale.”

Think, draw, explain

Which region has wider average gaps, inner or outer planets?

At this scale, is Jupiter only one centimeter beyond Mars?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

The light-year mail service

20 minutes · Paper · Pencil

Your investigation

  1. Imagine three stars at distances of 4, 10, and 25 light-years. Draw each with a mailbox labeled Earth.
  2. Write how many years each light message takes to arrive in this simplified example.
  3. Choose one star and draw an event there beside the later arrival of its light at Earth.
  4. Write one sentence that uses “year” for time and “light-year” for distance correctly.

Think, draw, explain

Which message has traveled longest?

Can a light-year measure the length of a birthday party?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Which way does the comet tail go?

20 minutes · Paper · Pencil · Colored pencils

Your investigation

  1. Draw a Sun and an oval comet orbit with four marked comet positions.
  2. At each position, add an arrow pointing away from the Sun. Use these arrows as a simplified guide for tail direction.
  3. Draw separate arrows showing the comet’s direction of travel along its orbit.
  4. Circle a place where the tail would not simply trail behind the comet.

Think, draw, explain

Which arrows describe movement, and which describe tail direction?

Does a comet need air rushing past it to form a tail?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

A space rock’s three-name comic

20 minutes · Paper · Pencil

Your investigation

  1. Divide a sheet into three panels: in space, entering air, and on the ground.
  2. Draw a small rock in the first, a bright streak in the second, and a surviving fragment in the third.
  3. Label meteoroid, meteor, and meteorite in the appropriate panels.
  4. Add an alternate ending where no solid fragment reaches the ground.

Think, draw, explain

Which name belongs to the light streak?

Does every meteor leave a meteorite?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Galaxy shape detectives

20 minutes · Paper · Pencil · Colored pencils

Your investigation

  1. Draw three galaxies: a spiral with arms, a rounded ellipse, and an irregular shape.
  2. Draw the same thin spiral disk from its edge and from above. Label them as two views of one model.
  3. Add small dots for stars and shaded patches for gas or dust.
  4. Write a question that a single flat drawing cannot answer.

Think, draw, explain

Can different viewing directions change apparent shape?

Is a galaxy the same kind of object as a star?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

My cosmic address nesting map

15 minutes · Paper · Pencil

Your investigation

  1. Draw four nested boxes labeled Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, and observable universe, with Earth in the smallest.
  2. Place the Moon near Earth in the Solar System box, and the Sun elsewhere in that box.
  3. Add another star and an imaginary planetary system in the Milky Way box.
  4. Write “these boxes show membership, not scale or exact boundaries.”

Think, draw, explain

Which is larger: Solar System or Milky Way?

Should every star be placed inside our Solar System box?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Find the repeating starlight dip

20 minutes · Paper · Pencil · Ruler

Your investigation

  1. Draw a graph with observation numbers 1 to 12 along the bottom and brightness from 90 to 100 up the side.
  2. Plot these pretend readings: 100, 100, 94, 100, 100, 94, 100, 100, 94, 100, 100, 94.
  3. Circle the dips and predict the next observation number with a dip if the pattern continues.
  4. Write why another explanation still needs to be checked.

Think, draw, explain

What is the spacing between dips?

Do these invented measurements prove a real exoplanet exists?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Rover route with a science reason

25 minutes · Squared paper or a drawn 6-by-6 grid · Pencil

Your investigation

  1. Label grid columns A–F and rows 1–6. Start at A1; mark rock targets B3 and E5, and blocked steep slopes C3, C4, and D4.
  2. Plan a route that reaches both targets using only up, down, left, or right moves. Do not cross blocked cells.
  3. Count moves. At each target, write an observation you would make before collecting a sample.
  4. Ask a partner to check your route and explain why a safer route can be better than the shortest one.

Think, draw, explain

Give one valid route visiting both targets.

What should a rover observe before sampling?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Design a question-first space mission

30 minutes · Paper · Pencil · A planet or moon knowledge card

Your investigation

  1. Choose a destination and one question that measurements could help answer.
  2. Decide whether a flyby, orbiter, lander, or rover suits your question. Draw and label your spacecraft.
  3. Choose two instruments, such as a camera for terrain or a thermometer for temperature, and explain what each measures.
  4. Add one environmental challenge and one limitation: what would your mission still not know?

Think, draw, explain

Would a surface rover be suitable for Jupiter?

What makes a scientific mission question testable?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Observation or explanation?

20 minutes · Paper · Pencil

Your investigation

  1. Make two headings: observation and possible explanation.
  2. Sort these statements: “the image shows a channel”; “water may have flowed here”; “the graph has a dip”; “a planet may have crossed the star.”
  3. Pair each observation with its possible explanation.
  4. Invent a different explanation for one observation and name a measurement that could help test it.

Think, draw, explain

Which statements report what was measured?

Why should scientists consider more than one explanation?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.

PIP’S STARHAVEN · ACTIVITY SHEET · CHILDREN

Choose an observatory’s job

20 minutes · Paper · Pencil

Your investigation

  1. Write three goals: study a faint galaxy, inspect a nearby planet, and detect light absorbed by Earth’s air.
  2. For each goal, list a useful property, such as a larger collecting mirror, stable pointing, or placement above the atmosphere.
  3. Draw your observatory and label where light is collected and where it is measured.
  4. Write a safety label: “Never point at the Sun. This drawing is not a guide to building a solar telescope.”

Think, draw, explain

Why might a larger mirror help with a faint galaxy?

Why put some telescopes in space?

Compare your explanation with the grown-up answer guide after you have tried.