Rocket Seeds Investigation

Who is this?

What is this? At 28,800 km/h it only takes 90 minutes for the weightless laboratory to make a complete circuit of Earth. Astronauts working and living on the Station experience 16 sunrises and sunsets each day.

How it all began In September 2015, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) teamed up with the UK Space Agency to send 2kg of rocket seeds to the International Space Station (ISS) with British astronaut Tim Peake. The seeds spent 6 months on board the ISS and then were returned to Earth in March 2016.

What next? 10,000 schools are now taking part in a national experiment to study the effects of space on the growth of plants. Thrussington is excited to be one of them! Red seed packet and blue seed packet – one will have been to space and the other won’t.

Yesterday Prepared the seed trays for planting. Labelled each compartment R1-25, R26-50, R51-75, R B1-25, B26-50, B51-75, B76-100

Today Randomisation method -to ensure there is no bias in the investigation - to ensure that conclusions drawn from the investigation are scientifically valid The big draw to determine the order of the seed trays along the windowsill….

Monday Our seed pack will arrive.

Tuesday We will plant the 200 seeds. Radio Leicester will be coming to find out what the Rocket Seeds investigation is all about. Be prepared to answer lots of questions and star on the radio! (to be aired later in the week) They will come back to school again at the end of the investigation.

What happens after planting? The seeds will be on the window sill in Class One as they must all have the same conditions. Each class will look after a set of seeds, watering and rotating them 180 degrees every 2 days. Miss Berry has created a display in Class One. A wall chart will be on display there where data about the plants will be recorded.

Gathering data Record the day the first seedling germinates (1 st pair of leaves). Day 10 - Count the number of seedlings that have germinated in each tray. Convert to a percentage. Record how many days it has taken the first seedling in each tray to grow 2 true leaves. Day 17 – How many seedlings are alive? Convert to a percentage.

Day 21 – Measure the height of the tallest plant in each tray (in mm) Day 28 – Randomly select 5 seedlings from each tray and count the leaves on each. Total and find the mean number of leaves per tray. Day 35 – Count how many plants are alive on the last day of the investigation. All data will then be inputted into the national database.

What do you predict will happen in the investigation? 1.The seeds from space will grow just as well as the seeds that stayed on Earth. 2. The seeds from space will not grow as well as the seeds that stayed on Earth. 3. The seeds from space will grow better than the seeds that stayed on Earth.