CHILDREN at Modbury Primary School are preparing to become space biologists and embark on a voyage of discovery by growing seeds that have been into space.

In September, two kilogrammes of rocket seeds were flown to the International Space Station on Soyuz 44S to spend several months in microgravity before returning to Earth in March.

The seeds have been sent as part of Rocket Science, an educational project launched by the Royal Horticultural Society Campaign for School Gardening and the United Kingdom Space Agency.

Modbury Primary School will be one of up to 10,000 schools to receive a packet of 100 seeds from space, which they will grow alongside seeds that haven’t been to space and measure the differences over seven weeks.

The children won’t know which seed packet contains which seeds until all results have been collected by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and analysed by professional biostatisticians.

The out-of-this-world, nationwide science experiment will enable the children to think more about how we could preserve human life on another planet in the future, what astronauts need to survive long-term missions in space and the difficulties surrounding growing fresh food in challenging climates.

Mrs Pemberton, class teacher at Modbury Primary School says: ‘We are very excited to be taking part in Rocket Science. This experiment is a fantastic way of teaching our children to think more scientifically and share their findings with the whole community.’

Rocket Science is just one educational project from a programme developed by the UKSA to celebrate European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake’s Principia mission to the ISS and inspire young people to look into careers in science, technology, engineering and maths subjects, including horticulture.

Applications to take part in Rocket Science are still open and will close in March next year or until all packs have been allocated.

Schools and educational groups can apply at rhs.org.uk/schoolgardening.