Exciting '˜Rocket science' project for Whissendine pupils

In September, two kilograms of rocket seeds were flown to the International Space Station on Soyuz 44S where they spent several months in microgravity before returning to Earth this month.

The seeds had been sent as part of Rocket Science, an educational project launched by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and the UK Space Agency.

Whissendine school has been chosen as one of up to 10,000 to receive a packet of 100 seeds from space, which they will grow alongside seeds that haven’t been to space and 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.

Tania Comber, Early Years teacher, said: “We are very excited to be taking part in Rocket Science. This experiment is a fantastic way of teaching our pupils to think like scientists and share their findings with the whole school.”

Rocket Science is just one educational project from a programme developed by the UK Space Agency to celebrate British astronaut Tim Peake’s mission to the ISS and inspire young people to look into careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects, including horticulture.