Two teams of 17 Pulaski County Middle School students spent a portion of their recently ended school year conducting experiments in a competition hosted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The goal of these experiments and the competition was to give NASA new and innovative ideas on planting and growing crops on the Moon and Mars in future missions to each.
Led by PCMS Science teacher Mrs. Tina Winesett, the two teams were part of a global science experiment and research challenge to examine how vegetable crops can grow in lunar or Martian soil. Using real soil simulant from the University of Central Florida’s CLASS Exolith Lab, the team designed and is conducting a set of experiments using the simulant to grow crops for a future long-duration mission.
These experiments and the competition are a part of the Plant the Moon/Mars Challenge. Pulaski County students performed exceptionally well, earning two State Awards. They were also the only school from Region 7 to place at the State level.
“When I started teaching three years ago, one of my main goals was to find ways for students to make connections between what they learn in the classroom and the world around them,” Mrs. Winesett said. “Participating in the Plant the Moon Challenge created this type of opportunity. Students did not simply read about growing plants, completing experiments, and NASA's upcoming missions. Instead, they experienced learning by conducting their own experiment based on research. Their mission - to grow vegetables in lunar soil to help provide astronauts more nutrient rich food while in space. This serves multiple purposes. One, it would help combat health problems astronauts commonly face due to lack of proper nutrition while in space. Second, it is the first step in creating an environment stable enough for long term habitation.”
NASA has begun the process of returning to the Moon, including a recent test flight last month that left Earth and circled the moon while mapping more of the surface before returning. The next phase of the mission will include returning to the Moon with a crew and landing. This crew will be the first crewed test flight to the Moon since Apollo. This mission is named “Artemis.”
NASA has stated that the Artemis mission will include the first woman and the first person of color to land on the moon, and will explore more of the lunar surface than ever before by collaborating with commercial and international partners using innovative technology. The next goal is to build a base camp on the lunar surface, allowing robots and astronauts to explore more and conduct more scientific experiments than have ever been possible by allowing them to remain there for extended times.
The crew of the upcoming Artemis II mission, NASA Astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Jeremy Hansen, were on hand to speak when the Pulaski County students visited Richmond last week to display their experiment results and receive recognition.
The PCMS students were broken down into two teams. Cougars 1 consisted of Matthew Bise, Ty’male Martin, Robert LaBianco, Geo Campos-Lytton, Autum Chandler, Autumn Raines, Bonnie Hall, Aaliyah Hill, Aden Hunter, and Riley O’Neal.
Cougars 4 consists of Yang Lu, Austin Turpin, Carter Jones, Christopher Long, Katelin Gallimore, Kaitlyn Nunn, and Ashley Riddle.
Last week, nine of the students from PCMS were able to make the trip to Richmond to display their projects and receive their recognition.
“Students were invited to spend the day at the Virginia Museum of Science,” Winsett said. “Their day started by presenting the details of their experiment to members of the Virginia Space Grant Consortium and other middle and high school students present. Afterward, they were treated to a dome showing of Astronauts in Training where they learned how astronauts get ready for their space missions. After the show students were provided lunch before returning to hear the high school teams give their presentations. Once the presentations were complete, students were presented their awards and given the rest of the afternoon to explore the science museum.”
“The Virginia Space Grant Consortium provided the funding for our project and also coordinated the event this past weekend,” she continued. “Pulaski County Middle School left a lasting impression with Education Programs Manager Rudo Kashiri. She was impressed that we were able to bring home two state awards in our first year of the competition and encouraged them to participate in the Plant the Moon Challenge in the upcoming 2023-24 school year.”
Students from the United States, Mexico, Canada, Spain, Puerto Rico, and New Zealand took part in the experiments and competition. United States participants came from California, Idaho, North Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Montana, Illinois, Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, DC, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.
The numbers show that 86.3% of the students did experiments on the Moon and 13.7% based their experiments on Mars. The competition was not limited to just one age group. While a large portion of the experiments were by middle school students, 38.5% were conducted by high school students, 12.4% were by elementary school students, and the remainder were conducted by college undergraduates and professionals.
The event resulted in the creation of 1,072 videos with 382 hours of discussion.
The project completed by the Cougar 1 team earned State and National recognition. Experiment #12508, as it was labeled, attempted to grow spinach, radishes, and green beans in simulated lunar soil. The team earned Best in Show for their green bean experiment, which were planted February 20 and matured in 55 days. They earned the NASA Space Grant Regional Expansion Project Award at the middle school level.
This experiment also received National attention for innovation. They included slices of sweet potato in the pots to aid in sprouting, discovering that they needed to allow the sweet potato slits to dry first to avoid mold in combination with overwatering.
Other schools from the Commonwealth who earned the NASA Space Grant Regional Expansion Project Award at the middle school level included Manassas Park Middle School and Forest Middle School Cavaliers #4.
“My hope for these students … to believe in themselves as much as I believe in them,” Mrs. Winesett said. “They proved this weekend they ‘can do hard things’ and I look forward to watching these students as well as the entire class of 2027 as they head to PCHS this fall and show their Cougar Pride!”
