AstroCrops – Growing plants for future space missions
Brief description:In this set of activities, students will build an understanding of germination and plant growth by following the development of three unknown plants for 12 weeks.
They will conduct measurements and make observations to evaluate their plant’s growth and health.
Students will use their observations to make a hypothesis about which species of plants they are growing and discuss whether these plants are suitable for growing on long duration space missions.
Learning Objectives:
Age range:
8 – 12 years old
Time
Lesson: 30 minutes per week for 12 weeks
Resource available in:
Activity 1: Let it grow
In this activity, students will track the development of three unknown seeds. As the seeds develop into adult plants, students will learn to make scientific observations and record data to track the growth over time. Students should complete the activity by presenting their results in a letter to Paxi.
Equipment
Did you know?
Astronauts have already eaten food grown in space! In August 2015, astronauts on board the International Space Station ate their first space salad – a crop of red romaine lettuce.
It was grown in a special plant growth unit called Veggie, which provides the lighting and nutrients. In this image, you can see the lettuce growing.
It was grown in a special plant growth unit called Veggie, which provides the lighting and nutrients. In this image, you can see the lettuce growing.
Red romaine lettuce grown on the ISS
Keywords:
Power from Water – How to produce oxygen and hydrogen on the Moon
Brief description: In this set of three activities, students will learn about electrochemistry. In the first activity, they will build a voltaic pile – a
Water on the Moon – Filtering lunar ice cores to extract water
Brief description: In this resource, pupils will spend a day recording approximately how much water they use for different activities. This is followed by an
AstroFarmer – Learning about conditions for plant growth
Brief description: In this set of six activities, students will investigate which factors affect plant growth, and relate these factors to growing plants in space.
