Children take part in national rocket science experiment

Willow Tree Pre-School children in Crawley are planting the 'Rocket seeds' that have been in space with astronaut Tim Peake. Here with Shaun Howell, Plant Area Manager Squires, Crawley. Pic Steve Robards SR1611229 SUS-160419-133444001

The Brownies welcomed groups from all of East Horley to plant the seeds last week. They were also joined by the Horley Town Mayor, Cllr Richard Olliver to celebrate the occasion.

The seeds have spent several months at the International Space Station (ISS) on Soyuz 44S with British astronaut Tim Peake before returning to Earth in March.

They were sent as part of ‘Rocket Science’, an educational project launched by the Royal Horticultural Society Campaign for School Gardening and the UK Space Agency.

Horley Town Mayor Cllr Richard Olliver joins the 7th Horley Brownies and friends to be taking part in the the Rocket Science experiment planting seeds that have been in space woith British astronaut Tim Peake - picture submitted by

The brownies and playgroup children were two of 10,000 schools, nurseries and community groups receiving the seeds this month.

They planted some rocket seends as well as some that have stayed on planet Earth and.

It’s a blind experiment, so the brownies 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 experiment will reach its conclusion with the 7th Horley Brownies taking the final measurements and seeing if there is any difference between the two sets of resulting plants on Monday May 23.

Anna, Brown Owl for 7th Horley Brownies, said :“We are so excited to be taking part in this unique experiment. We always look for ways to inspire and ignite the brownies’ imaginations and this scientific project is a wonderful opportunity.”

The children will be watching them with interest over the next few weeks measuring any differences between them

Isabelle, aged eight, said: “I think being in space would be really fun, it would feel like you’re on a trampoline all the time. I would love that.”

Izzy, nine, said: “I think the space seeds will grow fastest because they whooshed up into space.”

Eight-year-old Mia said: “It was really fun to plant the seeds with my friends and we’re all excited about what might happen when the seeds start to grow.”

Suzanne Brown, Early Years Practitioner at Cherry Lane, 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 UK Space Agency to celebrate British ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s Principia mission to the ISS and inspire young people to look into careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects, including horticulture.

Follow the project on Twitter: @RHSSchools #RocketScience