We are very excited to share the news that Mitcham Primary School has been successfully selected as one of the 150 schools nationally that will participate in the inaugural program, “What’ll happen to the wattle??!”. A big thank you to the year 6 students who helped to put together our application - Rebecca, Tilly, Michaela, Usman and Sam!
The One Giant Leap Australia Foundation is sending native golden wattle seeds to the International Space Station in early December, 2020. In collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) the seeds will live in space for six months, returning to Australia in time for Science Week 2021. Our school will receive the wattle seeds that have flown to space, plus seeds that have not. The seeds are from the same seed lot. We will germinate and grow the seeds, recording data about the germination and seed growth. The 12-month to 2 year project will result in the creation of a nationwide map identifying the location of Australia‘s 'space wattle’ trees
The seeds will head to space on the 21st commercial resupply services (CRS-21) mission, currently scheduled for Sunday 6 December at 3:09am Adelaide time, and you can watch it on NASA TV if you're awake! (see https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-tv-coverage-set-for-next-space-station-resupply-mission-with-spacex)
Miriam Doull, 3-7 Science