LEGO® Life Forms - support for schoolkids

Calling all budding astrobiologists!

The LEGO Group and the Natural History Museum are challenging you to predict what life could look like in other parts of the universe.

Choose from four environments, each inspired by a real moon or exoplanet in our galaxy.

For schoolkids, we've also added examples of adaptations shown by plants and animals on Earth, plus information on how this activity links to the school curriculum.

Get building

Use your imagination to build your own LEGO® Life Form that could survive in each of the four environments. You'll need to think carefully about what adaptations life might need to survive in those conditions. You can use any LEGO bricks or materials you have around the house.

Share your builds

As all scientists do, make sure you share your ideas! Share your life forms with us and tell us how they are adapted.

Use #NHMLEGO and tag @NHM_Learn and @LEGO_Group on X.com.

Environment one: frozen oceans

Frozen oceans are inspired by Jupiter's moon Europa. We know that this moon is covered in ice with deep oceans beneath. Many scientists think that these oceans could be a fantastic place for life to exist elsewhere in our solar system.

Conditions: icy, cold with deep dark water

Environment two: twilight rocky mountains

Twilight rocky mountains is inspired by exoplanet TRAPPIST-1e. Scientists think that this exoplanet might be like Earth, with a rocky surface and liquid water. However, it is thought that this exoplanet does not rotate like Earth. This means there would be no day and night, and sunlight would be red!

For this environment, imagine a rocky mountain where one side is always in the dark shadows and one side is always in red twilight. The darker it is, the cooler it might be, and it could be wet too.

Conditions: always dark, wet, and rocky

Environment three: ultraviolet desert

Ultraviolet desert is inspired by the Proxima Centauri b exoplanet.

Imagine a desert-like, sandy environment. Since this planet is very close to its star, we predict there might be lots of ultraviolet (UV) light and harmful X-rays. UV rays give us sunburn on Earth, so you can imagine what this might be like from a much closer star.

Any life here would need to be able to protect itself from these rays.

Conditions: sandy and dry with harmful UV rays

Environment four: volcanoes and ash

Volcanoes and ash is inspired by Jupiter's moon Io. This moon has over 400 volcanoes on its surface but is surprisingly cold with unusual snowfields and a surface temperature of -130 degrees Celsius.

This environment would be very hot close to the volcanoes and very cold away from them, with lots of volcanic ash making it dark.

Scientists have observed an aurora on this moon, like Earth's northern (aurora borealis) and southern (aurora australis) lights, so there might be beautiful colours dancing across the sky.

Conditions: extremely hot and cold, ashy, dry

Help with getting started

Adaptations are a feature of a living thing that improves its chances of survival.

When building your lifeform, think about what adaptations it might need to survive in its environment.

How might your life form move?
How could your life form sense the world around it?
How might your life form grow?
How might your life form get energy?
How would your life form stay warm/cool?

In the video below, you can find out about adaptations of animals and plants on Earth as Museum staff talk about their favourite specimen. Listen carefully and see if you can remember the features of the different living things that help them to survive.

Keywords and curriculum links

Keywords

Adaptation: a feature of a living thing that improves its chances of survival. For example, a duck's webbed feet help it to swim quickly in water.
Astrobiologist: a scientist who looks for evidence of life in space
Rotate: turning or spinning around a middle point or 'axis'
Orbit: moving in a circle around another object. For example, moons orbit planets, planets orbit stars.
Star: a large, glowing ball of gas which sometimes has planets orbiting around it. The planet Earth orbits around a star called the Sun.
Moon: a large natural object that orbits a planet. Some planets have many moons orbiting them.
Solar system: a star together with its family of planets
Exoplanet: a planet that orbits a star in a different solar system to ours

Curriculum links

This activity can be interpreted in various ways to suit different complexities; from simple family fun, to a key stage 2 focus on adaptations and environments to a complex key stage 4 challenge of how life evolves and the interdependencies in ecosystems. While LEGO® bricks are useful to build models and encourage playful creativity, any materials can be used to build a Life Form.

Science

Key Stage 1

Year 2

Living things and their habitats

identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited and describe how different habitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants, and how they depend on each other

Key Stage 2

Working scientifically

reporting on findings from enquiries, including oral and written explanations, displays or presentations of results and conclusions

Year 5

describe the movement of Earth and other planets relative to the Sun in the solar system
describe the movement of the Moon relative to Earth
use the idea of Earth's rotation to explain day and night and the apparent movement of the Sun across the sky

Year 6

Evolution and inheritance

identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution

Key Stage 3

Relationships in ecosystems

the interdependence of organisms in an ecosystem, including food webs and insect pollinated crops
how organisms affect, and are affected by, their environment, including the accumulation of toxic materials

Space physics

our Sun as a star, other stars in our galaxy, other galaxies

Key Stage 4

Biology

living organisms are interdependent and show adaptations to their environment
evolution occurs by the process of natural selection and accounts both for biodiversity and how organisms are all related to varying degrees
organisms are interdependent and are adapted to their environment

Art and design

Key Stage 1

to use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination
to develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space

Key Stage 2

to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials, for example, pencil, charcoal, paint and clay