Schools in experiment with seeds from space

Pupils at Spalding schools are embarking on a voyage of discovery by growing seeds that have been into space.

The youngsters at St John’s, The Priory and St Norbert’s schools are among those taking part in the Rocket Science project, which saw rocket seeds flown to the International Space Station (ISS) where they spent several months in microgravity before returning to Earth last month.
The schools will be among 10,000 nationally 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.
Katy Llewellyn, Year 6 teacher at St John’s, said: “This experiment is a fantastic way of teaching our children to think more scientifically and share their findings with the whole school.
“Gardening is about to take a prominent part within our school curriculum, with each year group taking responsibility for growing, planting and caring for a range of fruit and vegetables in our fantastic new onsite allotment on a weekly rotation.
“Although the Eco-Warriors within school will be taking a lead role for this fantastic experiment, the whole school will participate in the monitoring and observing of the seeds. What a fantastic opportunity!”
Pat Carter, science teacher at The Priory School, said: “This experiment is a fantastic way of teaching our pupils to think more scientifically and share their findings with the whole school.”