NASA is the best source of current information about exoplanets and the ongoing search for other worlds that could support life. Take a look at these resources to share with your students. Many include student-friendly short videos and infographics.
You'll want to check out NASA's Exoplanet Multimedia Resources, which is packed with amazing images, videos, fact sheets, infographics and much more.
Eyes on Exoplanets is an interactive that allows you and your students to explore exoplanets, compare them to our own neighbor planets, and discover how far away they are.
PBS LearningMedia resources include background reading, teaching tips, discussion questions, supplementary materials, and alignment with standards.
In Stars and Exoplanets, join a group of students who visit the Exoplanet Travel Agency to learn about exoplanets and what it might be like to visit one. Grades 4-8.
The Goldilocks Zone explains why scientists are looking for Earth-like planets that are just the right distance from the stars they orbit. Included is a classroom activity to help students visualize the Goldilocks zone. Grades 4-8.
Using Color to Identify Planets shows how analyzing the colors of light coming from distant planets can help us learn what those exoplanets are like. Grades 4-8.
The James Webb Telescope introduces the most powerful space telescope ever launched to date. Grades 4-8.
How To Discover A New Planet gives a historical perspective to the search for exoplanets using the transit method. Planet-Hunting focuses on the Kepler space telescope's amazing discoveries of numerous Earth-like rocky planets. Grades 6-8.
NOVA's Are We Alone? surveys the many ways scientists analyze clues to help answer the question of life beyond Earth. For grades 7 and up.
Lesson Plans and Classroom Resources
In this Exoplanets activity for grades 3-4, students select a star and create their own “habitable zone” exoplanet.
Undiscovered Worlds, a guide from Boston's Museum of Science, can be easily adapted for classroom use and contains activities for grades 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12.
Students compare Earth's characteristics to those of a specific exoplanet in this middle-school lesson.
Institute of Physics offer five lessons for teaching exoplanets to middle-school students including Detecting Exoplanets, Exoplanets in the Habitable Zone, and Exoplanet Atmospheres, as well as a downloadable Exoplanets Poster.
Combine science and math in this “Pi in the Sky” middle-school lesson from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Students use data from the Kepler mission to find the size of an exoplanet.
