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  • Our STEM projects are designed so that participants get it wrong before they get it right. You will observe your students struggling as they attempt to create their own STEM projects. This process is an empowering experience, building perseverance, frustration tolerance and growing overall confidence! With your support, students will step out of their comfort zones to think, build and problem-solve for themselves.
  • Productive Struggle Opportunities:
    -Using a screwdriver to make a hole in the applesauce cup
    -Careful placement of seeds
    - Keeping a clean work station and clean hands
    -Patience and delayed gratification in logging and seeing results

In this Rosie Labs guide you will find:

  • Productive struggle opportunities for students during their project build,
  • Lesson objectives and concept overview,
  • Optional STEM topic video to share with participants,
  • Step-by-step instructions and video of the Rosie Riveters’ Hydroponic Plants project,
  • Optional STEM activities to further explore the objectives and concepts used in the project build.

Objective

Participants will learn what plants need to grow and thrive on Earth and examine how they might be able to adapt those needs so plants can grow and thrive in space! 

Concept Overview and Experiment Inspiration

There’s no question about it — plants are vital to our very existence. They provide us with food, oxygen, and shelter. Humans and plants have a symbiotic relationship. Humans breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide, while plants use carbon dioxide to produce food and release oxygen. We need each other! But have you ever stopped to think about how these benefits could translate beyond our planet?

Traveling with plants is not a new concept. Early explorers and colonists coming to the Americas frequently packed clippings of and seeds from their favorite green friends. Growing plants from their native lands provided travelers with familiar sources of food and medicine and also helped with another common ailment: homesickness. Plants can provide similar benefits to astronauts traveling beyond our atmosphere.

Astronauts that are stationed at the International Space Station live in space for about six months at a time. That is a long time to be without things on Earth that we are used to – like fresh vegetables and flowers! Scientists have been experimenting and having great success with growing plants in space – but how?

The first question is, how do plants grow? Plants produce their own food through a process called photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is a process that uses sunlight, water and carbon dioxide, along with a green pigment that exists in the plant’s leaves called chlorophyll, to make a special nutritional sugar that is the plants’ food source. When the light interacts with the chlorophyll, it mixes with carbon dioxide and water to make oxygen and sugar.  Other micro-nutrients are absorbed by the root system.  These nutrients contribute to the plant’s strength. Typically, the roots absorb nutrients through the soil, or dirt. The by-product, or the aftermath, of photosynthesis is oxygen, which the plant releases into the atmosphere. 

If we know how plants grow, how can we recreate the environment plants need to survive in space? Providing a light source and water has long been discovered by scientists. But plants also need additional nutrients from soil to make them strong, and bringing soil to space is an impossible task. Scientists have discovered that plants can still receive nutrients without growing them in heavy soil. This is called hydroponic gardening.

In this project you will work to grow radishes hydroponically (growing plants in a liquid). You’ll build, measure, and monitor the conditions to ensure your radishes grow and thrive just like scientists and astronauts are doing to help us grow food at the International Space Station (ISS) and someday, maybe soon, even on Mars!

Science Goals

  • Plants need sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to produce their own food through a process called photosynthesis.
  • Photosynthesis is a natural process that uses sunlight, water, carbon dioxide and chlorophyll to make a special nutritional sugar that is the plants’ food source. When sunlight interacts with chlorophyll, it mixes with carbon dioxide and water to make oxygen and sugar.  The sugar is oxidized through a process called respiration, which transforms carbon dioxide and water into energy.  Soil provides additional micronutrients (tiny food sources) that are critical to the health of a plant.
  • Plants use carbon dioxide during photosynthesis and then oxygen is released once the sugar is created. Humans breathe in oxygen from the air and exhale carbon dioxide. Therefore, humans and plants have a symbiotic relationship, which means they live together with a shared benefit.
  • Scientists have been able to create environments in space through hydroponic gardening to simulate the photosynthesis process in order to grow fresh plants in space.

Vocabulary

  • photosynthesis- a natural process that uses sunlight, water and carbon dioxide, along with chlorophyll, to make a special nutritional sugar that becomes a plants’ food source
  • chlorophyll – a green pigment found in plants that assist with absorbing light during photosynthesis
  • symbiosis – an interaction between two different organisms living close to each other that has a beneficial effect for both organisms.
  • hydroponic gardening – the practice of growing plants using only water, nutrients and a growing medium.

Required Materials

  • amber jar
  • string
  • radish seeds
  • water
  • 1/2 gallon (62 oz) container (like a pot)

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1

Prepare your seeds (germinating): Place your seeds into a little bit of water to soak overnight. In the morning your seeds should have germinated/sprouted (started to grow).

Step 2

Prepare your plant food: Your plant food needs to be diluted. A full packet would need to be diluted in 2 gallons (256 oz) of water. You have a 1/2 gallon container 64 oz. Fill your container with water add 1/4 of the plant food packet to the water and
mix. Save the remaining plant food in the provided baggie. Wash hands immediately after handling.

Step 3

Remove the lid, empty, rinse and dry the applesauce cup.

Step 4

Use a screwdriver to create a hole large enough for your string/twine to pass through it in the center of the cup.

Step 5

Fill the amber jar 1/2 way full with the plant food/water mixture.

Step 6

Place most of your string/twine into the water so the end of it is touching the bottom of the jar. Thread the
other end of the string through the hole in the applesauce container.

Step 7

Wet cotton balls and wring them out so they are damp but not dripping. Thread the wet twine into the cotton balls and place them into the applesauce container.

Step 8

Gently nest your germinated seeds in between the dampened cotton balls and place them in a sunny location.

Step 9

Watch your plants grow! Grab a journal or sheets of paper and log your plants growth (measure), color, and conditions.

Optional STEM Activities

Resource 1

A Closer Look at Photosynthesis 

Show students this diagram of photosynthesis. (credit Smithsonian Education Center).  The green pigment (color) in a plant’s leaves is created by chlorophyll. The plants leaves help the plant catch the light (energy) of the sun This light interacts (mixes) with the green chlorophyll in the plant’s leaves and helps the plant make food by giving it the energy it needs to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) into oxygen and sugar. The sugar that is made during photosynthesis is food for the plant. But just like humans, plants cannot live on sugar alone! Plants need nutrients (minerals) to help them to grow efficiently. So in addition to making their own food (sugar) they also absorb nutrients through their roots.

Students can explore photosynthesis by growing their own plants in the classroom as well as drawing their own plants and illustrating the photosynthesis cycle.

Advanced Exploration of Photosynthesis

When a plant respires, it releases carbon dioxide.  Tiny openings on the underside of the leaf, called stomata, absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen or vice versa, depending on whether the plant is photosynthesizing or respiring.  Because carbon dioxide exists in the atmosphere in very small quantities, the stomata have to be wide open during the hours that the leaves are absorbing light (photosynthesis).  If the humidity is too low, this can cause evaporation of the plant’s moisture.  The root system needs extra water to compensate for this.  If water is sparse, the leaves will suffer and look wilted. This is called transpiration. To avoid transpiration, hydroponic gardens need an atmosphere that is humid enough for the plant to achieve a balance between respiration and photosynthesis. 

Resource 2

Space Cafe 

Growing plants in space have many benefits to astronauts. These include:

  • Food – currently NASA compares its food system for astronauts to a picnic because space travelers must pack everything they consume. Their meals include few if any fresh fruits and vegetables due to limited room and rapid spoilage. But as we use the International Space Station, and someday have an outpost on the moon and colonies on Mars, we’ll need a renewable food source that will be more economical than “packing groceries.” Besides, fresh produce provides nutrients, flavor, texture, and variety to meals that break the monotony of packaged foods.
  • Air – plants use carbon dioxide (CO2, produced by astronauts) and produce oxygen (O2, consumed by astronauts) through the process of photosynthesis. They also remove chemical pollutants from the air. Plants would improve the air quality inside spacecraft.
  • Water Purification – it costs about $22,000 per kilogram to ship objects into space! This makes water, at about 3 kilograms per gallon, a very expensive commodity, so creating a way to reuse water would be very beneficial. Plants can play a role because they produce pure water in the process of transpiration. Scientists are developing techniques to irrigate plants with wastewater— such as that from washing — and then recapture the purified water given off during transpiration.
  • Waste Recycling – scientists are also investigating ways to recycle human waste and inedible plant matter to provide nutrients for plants. This is an important element for creating a self-contained ecosystem.

Have students use this information to come up with their own Space Cafe. What will be on the menu? How will they grow and prepare the meal? How will they keep their Cafe running smoothly in microgravity?

Resource 3

Parts of a Plant 

You will need cards with an image of different parts of a plant (Stem, Roots, Leaves, Flower/Fruit, etc)

Put a traditional potted plant at in the middle of the room. Ask participants to make a circle around the plant. Ask students what to take some time to observe the different parts of a plant. Then, split participants into four groups of two or three and give each group a part of a plant card. 

Have the students talk with the others in their group to 1) identify (name) the item on your card and 2) describe (tell us) a little bit about what you think the item does to support the growth of a plant. 

Some of the points they should uncover include:

  • Root- gathers food (from the soil)
  • Stem- transports (moves) water through the plant and makes it taller (closer to the sun) 
  • Leaf- collects energy from the sun
  • Fruit- holds seeds to grow more plants

 

Further Exploration

You will need: a bucket or pot with soil and a dowel or stick. Velcro or tape for your plant parts cards

Now that students have identified some of the parts of a plant let them put the parts together on the dowel. Students can place their card on parts of the dowel and imagine it as a plant. Discuss with students how the parts work together to make the plant survive.