In April this year, up to 10,000 schools will grow and compare the seeds flown to space with seeds that have stayed on Earth as part of the nationwide experiment.
Participating schools will receive a teaching pack containing a packet of seeds from space and a packet that have remained on Earth, a booklet outlining the main experiment, a poster to record results, stickers and more.
Following the experiment procedure, pupils will embark on a 35-day voyage of discovery to find out what growing plants in space can teach us about life on Earth and whether we can sustain human life in space in the future. Results will be collected and analysed by biostatisticians and published later in 2016, feeding into the real life work going on in space science research.
Two additional suites of resources (aimed at primary and secondary aged pupils) are available to download from the European Space Education Resource Office UK website to enhance learning around the issues of growing food in space, nutrition and plant mutations.
David Rogers, Sales Director at Tozer Seeds said: “We have been working closely with the RHS on this project for over a year and are all very proud to have our seed pictured on the space station with Tim Peake. We have a further 2 kg of the same seed securely stored in our warehouse and once the seed is down we will organise it’s re-packing and help get it out to the schools. As you can guess the whole company is excited by this.”
“Working with the UK Space Agency provides a unique opportunity for schools to engage young people in horticulture and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects. Educators can use this experiment and our suites of age-specific resources to teach the curriculum in a new, innovative way using real world issues of food security and the possible future settlement of humans on another planet. I encourage schools across the country to answer Tim Peake’s call and sign up to this very exciting project!”
Children and young people of all ages (from early years right up to university level) and all abilities are welcome to take part in the initiative. To take part in Rocket Science, organisations will be asked to either log into the RHS Campaign for School Gardening website or become a member of the Campaign. Membership is free and includes many benefits including a free welcome pack.
Organisations can follow the mission with the RHS and get involved on Twitter by tweeting @RHSSchools, using #RocketScience, by blogging about their own seed growing journey of discovery, and sharing the results of their food growing experiments online.