Growing Beyond Earth® for Australian Schools
Officially launching in 2025 after a two-year pilot, Growing Beyond Earth® for Australian Schools immerses students in the intersection of plant and space science!
This unique classroom-based learning program activates students’ skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) as they embark on an out-of-this world citizen science project, gathering data that informs research on growing plants in space. Students conduct plant experiments within a specially designed growth chamber which emulates the conditions in the ‘Vegetable Production System’ (Veggie), a system used to grow food on the International Space Station. Experiment data is then shared with plant scientists at NASA to help inform which species may be suitable for growing food in space.
The Growing Beyond Earth® Story
AIɫɫ (RBGV) supports the Australian branch of this remarkable program initiated by extraordinary minds at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (Miami, U.S.), in partnership with NASA in 2015. Together with our Australian partners, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Plants for Space, La Trobe Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and Food (LISAF), Toyota and Melbourne Airport, RBGV have invited 36 schools to be part of the Growing Beyond Earth® for Australian Schools program with big dreams to recruit more in the future! Our Australian schools are now part of a global community of 500 schools from 48 U.S. states and 10 countries.
If you would like to be informed about future opportunities within the Growing Beyond Earth® for Australian Schools program, please email sally.fierenzi@rbg.vic.gov.au or join our
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