Our wishes for this project are that student's tomato seeds germinate as expected, grow, be harvested, shared and eaten and that we will be able to provide valuable research data in regards to growing more plants on the International Space Station-ISS for longer space missions and future life in space for our future generations.
Our project is to grow tomato seeds that were on the International Space Station-ISS with Astronaut Scott Kelly. Apollo Middle School 7th and 8th grade students will compare growth rates and maturity rates of tomato seeds from the ISS and tomato seeds from Earth's atmosphere. Student will conduct a blind/non-biased science project and use the scientific method for research and data collection. Students will keep a science journal to record all research. They will prepare the peat pots for seed planting. Students will label their pots, plant the seeds, make predictions on what the outcomes will be for seeds lightly watered and then another set of seeds that are also lightly watered but covered in plastic....a make shift green house and then conduct the experiment using the same planting conditions for both sets of seeds. Students will take the starter plants outside, harden them off, and then plant the starter plants into the school garden, their home gardens and containers. Students will record each step of the process via journaling, drawing, measuring plant growth. Results will then be reported.
