Toronto students' space tomatoes out of this world

The tomato seeds spent almost two years in outer space before making their way to Nandita Bajajs Grade 9 science class.

And after an experiment that began at the start of this school year comparing the percentage of space seeds that germinated compared to those with earthly beginnings Bajaj did the big reveal on Friday, giving the excited teens the results.

In the past weve done different experiments to teach the scientific method, but the unit after this is astronomy, so the Tomatosphere project worked well on two fronts, said Bajaj, who has a degree in aerospace engineering as well as teaching.

The best thing about the experiment is the awareness of how real science is conducted, she said, and it gives students a chance to experience something that is part of a real-world experiment on the effects of space on food growth.

Some 18,000 students across North America will take part in the Tomatosphere program this year, and about three million have since it began 13 years ago.

Bajajs class received certificates from the Canadian Space Agency, handed out on Friday, for taking part in the mass experiment.

Tomatosphere is in part sponsored by Lets Talk Science, the Canadian Space Agency and the University of Guelph.

The seeds for Bajajs class at Northview Heights Secondary School some travelled more than 450 million kilometres were brought back to Earth last year from the International Space Station by famed Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield.

The class received space and non-space tomato seeds, which they were asked to germinate, without knowing which was which, and to then compare success rates for each set.

Ten days ago, their work was sent to the Canadian Space Agency. Their results were close to the overall average about 65 per cent of their 113 earthly seeds germinated, while 57 per cent of the 113 space ones did.

Read more:
Toronto students' space tomatoes out of this world