Seckinger High School’s Ecology students are growing plants that can survive beyond our planet. Last semester, through a grant provided by the Space Grant Consortium, these students were challenged to be future-ready by researching and finding plant life that could survive on Mars. The winning team of seniors grew beans and was awarded for “Best Growth.”  Plant Mars is a challenge in collaboration with the Institute of Competition Sciences and National Aeronautics and Space Administration that encourages students to be innovators and learn how to navigate “real-world challenge-based” situations.

     “This is the first time [we’ve] done planting and had to research [our] own investigation. [We] learned how to work in a team, and we learned that we can do science experiments and had a lot of fun growing our beans,” the team shared.

     The students used a project-based learning approach to see who could successfully grow the best crops using a Martian regolith simulant. Regolith is a layer of broken rock and dust covering Mars's surface. Five teams in grades 9-12 were tasked with designing an experiment to help scientists learn about growing plants on Mars while limiting the amount of materials required from Earth. In addition to beans, other teams grew radishes, mint, tomatoes, and bell pepper plants.

     Students learned that Mars's regolith lacks organic material, so they determined that combining organic material from the Earth with Mars's regolith was imperative to enrich the soil for growth. The strongest and most successful plants were grown in a mix of coconut peat and regolith.

     The growth will not stop here for Seckinger High Ecology students; they have been selected a second time to participate in the Space Grant Consortium’s Plant the Moon competition for the Spring 2025 semester. The grants are offered in both the fall and spring and in different states around the United States.

Learn more about the Institute of Competition Sciences and the Plant the Moon and Plant Mars competitions.