Tomatosphere!

 Today was an exciting day in Room 208! We planted Space Tomatoes! :)

How might someone plant a space tomato?

Here's our planting method:

As part of a 'blind test,' we planted two types of seeds - one from a control group and another from a group of seeds that went to space on SpaceX CRS-21 commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). (The seeds left Earth on December 6, 2020 and spent more than a month on the ISS. They were retuned to Earth on January 14, 2021 landing in a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.) 

We each planted 2 seeds - one from each seed group. The groups this year are "T" and "U" but we don't yet know which letter belongs to what seed group (hence the blind test). After planting our seeds, we placed our peat pots in mini-greenhouses (seedling trays with humidity covers), away from direct sunlight and cold-air drafts in order to provide ideal growing conditions.

We will make daily observations every day for the next 30 days. Our daily observations will include writing the date, the day of the experiment, the time of the observation, the temperature of the class and how many seeds from each group have germinated. It is expected that the seeds will start germinating between days 5 and 7, meaning we should start seeing tiny stems and leaves as early as Wednesday or Thursday!

As the experiment continues, we will discuss the need for collecting this type of data as it pertains to humans colonizing Mars. We will explore the Scientific Method and learning how to: write detailed hypotheses, analyze and graph our collected data and represent our findings in well-written conclusions.

At the conclusion of the experiment, we will be submitting our results to Tomatosphere, and at that point we will discover the identities of the seed groups!

Participation in this month-long experiment will not only help Canadian scientists address the question of how we supply space exploration missions with life support requirements, it may also inspire us to pursue studies in Science and Technology as our space scientists and Mars explorers of the future. 

Pretty cool, right? 🍅

T or U? Which group of seeds went to space?

We are planting our seeds!

We are getting our seeds tucked away into their greenhouse homes.

We named our seeds and whispered lots encouraging words to them so that they'll grow!

We'll be keeping an eye on our seedlings for the next 30 days and tracking our observations along the way.

Check back for more tomato news soon! :)