CHILDREN at Heron Hill Primary School in Kendal are preparing to become space biologists as they embark on a voyage of discovery by growing seeds that have been into space.

In September, two kilogrammes of rocket seeds were flown to the International Space Station (ISS) on Soyuz 44S where they will spend several months in microgravity before returning to Earth in March.

The seeds have been sent as part of Rocket Science, an educational project launched by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and the UK Space Agency.

The school will be one of up to 10,000 schools to receive a packet of 100 seeds from space, which they will grow alongside regular seeds and measure the differences over seven weeks. The children will not know what seeds the packet contains until all results have been collected and analysed by professionals.

The nationwide scientific experiment will enable the children to think more about how human life could be preserved on another planet in the future, what astronauts need to survive long-term missions in space, and the difficulties surrounding growing fresh food in challenging climates.

Headteacher Mr Peter Hicks said: "We are very excited to be taking part in Rocket Science. This experiment is a fantastic way of teaching our children to think more scientifically and share their findings with the whole school. The children are very excited about this opportunity. We enter Kendal in Bloom and Cumbria in Bloom each year and usually do quite well, as the children are very enthusiastic gardeners."

Rocket Science is just one educational project from a programme developed by the UK Space Agency to celebrate British ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s Principia mission to the ISS and inspire young people to look into careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects, including horticulture.