Yichang students to plant space seeds

By Zhou Qiling, Yichang International Communication Studio

This week six primary and secondary schools in Yichang will begin planting “space seeds”.

 

Planting space seeds has been a popular activity among teachers and students in Hubei for several years.

 

One of the schools involved in the activity this year is the Zhuhai Road primary school. It has received seven packs of space seeds and plans to divide them into 300 small packets so that more students can enjoy the science activity. 

 

Students can apply for the seeds and plant them at home. Science teachers will provide guidance and advice. 

 

“Students will be able to explore the differences between planting space seeds and normal seeds,” said Xiong Yixuan, a science teacher at the school. “Students will be able to design their own experiments. It’s an opportunity to develop their scientific and practical ability.” 

 

Space breeding is a method of optimizing seeds by allowing them to undergo modifications in the special environment of outer space.  

 

China's second most widely grown type of wheat, known as Luyuan 502, was bred from seeds that were flown into orbit 340km above the Earth's surface. In that low gravity environment, the seeds picked up subtle changes to DNA that gave them new qualities, making them more tolerant to drought and able to better resist certain diseases.

 

This week the Zhuhai Road primary school in Yichang will distribute to its students and teachers “space seeds” for space pepper No. 2F1, space eggplant No. 2F1, space pole bean, space red sweet tomato F1, space red bell pepper, space red pumpkin and space tagetes patula.