Growing Beyond Earth: NASA Space Crop Research Lab

About this event

Growing Beyond Earth: NASA Space Crop Research Lab

Ages 14–18 | 6 weekly sessions, Wednesdays, Oct. 7–Nov. 18 | 5:00–6:30 PM

Education Freedom Account (EFA) Families

Kashmir World Foundation is an approved EFA vendor. We will send you an invoice that you can submit for payment through ClassWallet.

What if your teenager could contribute to real research helping NASA explore the future of growing food in space?

Growing Beyond Earth is a hands-on, six-week citizen-science experience that takes students beyond the textbook and into the process of real scientific research. As part of a returning NASA/Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden citizen-science partnership at Kashmir World Foundation, students will grow experimental crop varieties in our ISS-analog plant habitat while learning how scientists are working to identify plants capable of supporting future space missions.

Throughout the program, students will follow authentic research protocols, monitor plant growth, make observations, collect and record data, and explore the science behind growing food in challenging environments,

including space. They will also learn how NASA is researching crop production for astronauts and future long-duration missions beyond Earth.

Their work doesn't end in the classroom. Student data and findings will be submitted directly to NASA's Space Crop Production team at Kennedy Space Center through the Growing Beyond Earth citizen-science program, the same research pipeline that has helped identify crops grown and eaten by astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

This is an opportunity for curious young people to experience science as scientists do: asking questions, making careful observations, working with real data, and contributing to a larger scientific mission.

Real plants. Real research. Real data. A real connection to the future of space exploration.