It seems hard to celebrate the natural world when you’re sheltering in place. But even though many Earth Day events have been canceled, several New York institutions are honoring the holiday’s 50th anniversary online. Here you can learn how to raise butterflies indoors, compete in an Earth trivia contest, join citizen science projects and tour sites as close as the city forests and as distant as other planets. These virtual festivities are free, and some last more than a day. Below are select highlights; more possibilities nationwide are at earthday.org.

The American Museum of Natural History

EarthFest at Home

Fasten your seatbelts: During this festival, you’ll travel from your kitchen to Mars. The fun starts in the morning with family workshops in botany and glacial physics. They’ll teach how to create an indoor mini-garden and mix “glacier goo” for experiments. At noon, join museum experts for Field Trip Earth, a live round-the-world journey that uses interactive data-visualization software to provide views of sites like the Himalayas and the Great Barrier Reef from space. Another live watch party and chat will follow, offering videos about Earth Day and environmental developments since 1970. At 6 p.m., a virtual flight to Venus and Mars will explore the solar system’s “Goldilocks zone” and what those planets teach us about climate change. Top off the night with a game of Earth Trivia! A Toast to the Planet! The prizes: places at a virtual happy hour with museum scientists on Friday.

Wednesday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; amnh.org.

The Staten Island Museum