Rose basketball highlights
Issue 1
September 27th, 2019
Redman receives space grant from NASA
THURS. | 3-2-23 | NEWS
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has started their Spring 2023 Plant the Moon Challenge, a science challenge where participants have to grow a plant from a simulant soil. Rose Earth Club and AP (Advanced Placement) Environmental Science (APES) classes have decided to participate in this event.
The Plant the Moon Challenge is a yearly challenge that takes place worldwide between elementary, middle and high schools, with some undergraduate classes also participating. It is sponsored by the Institute for Competitive Science, North Carolina Space Grant and NASA.
APES classes and Earth Club received a grant to register for this challenge from the North Carolina Space Consortium.
APES teacher Jonathan Redman was first approached with the idea of joining the challenge by Pitt County School’s head of the science department.
“Dr. Jennifer Stalls emailed about it and Ms. [Kinsey] Earth Environmental Science teacher)
Photo by Averi Simpson
and I decided that it would be something we would be interested in trying,” Redman said.
Once the students begin to grow the plant, they will have to document their growth plan for the plant, such as how much fertilizer or water they use and how the plant is set up. After ten weeks, a final report of the plant’s growth must be submitted.
Going into the challenge, Redman described his AP students' concerns in balancing AP work and keeping up with the growth of the plant.
“They were kind of wary about it, they were like ‘oh my gosh, we’re doing AP and we're doing this,’ I think once they start seeing the results of the planting, it will make it a little bit more real,” Redman said.
Despite the worries from Redman’s class, he believes that participating in the challenge will benefit the students later in life.
“A lot of these students who take AP will be going into science as a career so being able to design and experiment is something that they need to know to do,” Redman said.
At the end of the growth period, NASA holds a virtual symposium, in which NASA scientists, executives and dignitaries attend to present awards to the teams with the best results in different categories.
