Tomatosphere!

Today was an exciting day in Room 208. We planted space tomatoes!

After reading about and discussing the Tomatosphere project and watching THIS VIDEO featuring astronaut Thomas Pasquet, we were ready to get started!

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 have been in space on the I.S.S. We each planted 2 seeds - one from each seed group. The groups this year are "J" and "K" 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 Monday or Tuesday!

There are the 2 official seed pouches and our 2 'greenhouses' that will house our tomato plants over the next 30 days.

Here we are plating our tiny tomato seeds!

After planting our seeds, we put in a small stick with our Name and Seed Group (J or K) to identify our plant as our own. Some of us even named our plants so that we can say hello to them every day when we arrive in class! :)

As as class, we will make daily observations of how many seeds have germinated. We also note the time, classroom temperature and any other important information (such as when they were watered), We will continue this for 30 days.

As the experiment continues, we will discuss the need for collecting this type of data as it pertains to humans colonizing Mars. We will also be discussing 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 out 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. 
Tomatoes, anyone?