Students begin the program learning about what plants need to grow on earth and in space, and soon take on the challenge of designing their own habitat for plants in space.

Sponge House Project 

After learning about what plants need to grow, students make their own sprout houses with sponges and chia seeds. They get to observe the seeds grow for the next 4 weeks and notice any changes and unexpected suprises!

Taking their lunar habitat design from Week 1, students get to make their habitat come to life using a shoebox and craft materials. Students work together as a team to design their shoebox habitat and use creativity and problem-solving skills throughout the project.

Planting TomatoeSphere X and Y seeds.  The next day, students plant tomato seeds from the TomatoSphere Program! They learn that half of these seeds have been to space while the other half stayed on Earth. We helped attach lights to the shoe box so the students can watch them grow for the rest of the program.

Design a Mission Patch

After learning about the moon, lunar landings, and the recent Artemis 2 mission, students get to design their own mission patch for their own mission as an astronaut. 

Students took their knowledge about growing plants, lights, and habitats to create a lunar habitat on the moon for astronauts. They were each given a challenge that NASA faces in trying to create a lunar habitat to incorporate into their design.

Learn the USDA Soil Texture Triangle

Research Question: How might plants grow on the Moon if not using soil from the earth?

After learning about how to classify soil, the students used cookies, fudge, and gummy worms to create soil cups that represented the different soil layers they had just learned about.