7 January 2016

Please note: this news article is in our archive. Articles were correct at time of publication, but should not be relied on for accuracy after the passage of time.

It’s not just a British Astronaut up in space of the international space station (ISS), but soon a shipment of seeds on board will be part of a payload joining him for a very special experiment involving UK students including those at Imberhorne School. In September, 2kg of rocket seeds were flown to the International Space Station (ISS) on Soyuz 44S where they will spend several months in microgravity before returning to Earth in March 2016. The seeds have been sent as part of Rocket Science, an educational project launched by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and the UK Space Agency.

Imberhorne 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 students 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.

Mrs Noreen Daw, Imberhorne’s Garden Club Coordinator said: “We are very excited to be taking part in Rocket Science. This experiment is a fantastic way of teaching our students to think more scientifically and share their findings with the whole school. Our Garden Club project has seen success in many competitions, and in conjunction with our work with the RHS as a School Ambassador, we are very excited to be taking part in this project. We will be conducting a dual trial at our Lower School site at Windmill Lane and also at our Upper School site at Imberhorne Lane. The KS3 students Gardening club will work alongside our Science department as a cross curricular activity. The KS4 Gardening Club students will be conducting the study at Imberhorne Lane.