PUPILS at Grappenhall Pre School are getting a taste of becoming space biologists after embarking on a voyage of discovery growing seeds which have been into space.
Last September, 2kg of rocket seeds were flown to the International Space Station (ISS) on Soyuz 44S where they spent several months in microgravity before returning to Earth in March 2016. The seeds have been sent as part of Rocket Science, an educational project launched by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and the UK Space Agency.
Grappenhall Pre School received a packet of 100 seeds from space, which they are growing alongside seeds which haven’t been to space so they can measure the differences over seven weeks. The children won’t know which seed packet contains which seeds until all results have been collected by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and analysed by professional biostatisticians.
The out-of-this-world, nationwide science experiment will enable the children to think more about how we could preserve human life on another planet in the future, what astronauts need to survive long-term missions in space and the difficulties surrounding growing fresh food in challenging climates.
Stacey Seed, the setting manager – with the perfect name for this experiment, at Grappenhall Pre School, said “We are very excited to be taking part in Rocket Science. This experiment is a fantastic way of teaching our children to think more scientifically and share their findings with the whole school as well as the community”.
Rocket Science is just one educational project from a programme developed by the UK Space Agency to celebrate British ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s Principia mission to the ISS and inspire young people to look into careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects, including horticulture.
Follow our space experiment with Stacey Seed and our future space biologists on Pre School’s Facebook page or you can follow the project on Twitter: @RHSSchools #RocketScience.
For more information on the Rocket Science project or RHS Campaign for School Gardening, please contact the Campaign at [email protected]
Pupils at Grappenhall Pre-school who are taking part in the space project
PICTURES BARRIE SCHOLES
