Tim Peake’s out of world gardening experiment
St Andrew’s Prep pupils have turned into space biologists this term as they embark on an experiment to grow seeds which have spent several months in microgravity on the International Space Station (ISS). They were returned to earth in March and children from the pre-prep will grow the ‘space’ seeds alongside seeds which have not been into space and measure the differences between them over seven weeks. The children will not know which seed packet contains which seeds until all the results have been collected and analysed by professional biostatisticians.
The project is being run in partnership between the UK Space Agency and the RHSCampaign for School Gardening.
Speaking from the ISS, European Space Agency astronaut, Tim Peake asked schools across the country to get involved in the project saying, “”Conditions here on the International Space Station are quite different from on planet Earth, due to us being weightless here in orbit. This experiment will aim to see if microgravity can affect the growth mechanisms in seeds.”
Head of Pre-Prep, Heather Stokes said, “The children are so excited to be experimenting with seeds that were looked after by Tim Peake. This is a real out of world experiment and should guide how we might preserve human life on other planets on future space missions.”
