UF youth development program aims for the stars

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The University of Florida’s (UF) 4-H Youth Development Program is getting kids statewide in space-based careers, with teachers incorporating space science into STEM lessons with help from UF partnerships.

The programming is out of the box, with lessons on how agriculture and engineering are related even within the space industry. The program’s goal is to inspire youth to pursue space-based careers, particularly in Florida.

“Florida 4-H is equipping youth with skills that go beyond readiness for work and life,” said Stacey Ellison, Florida 4-H state program leader. “Through space-based STEM initiatives like Go for Launch!, youth are developing critical thinking, teamwork and leadership skills that prepare them to excel in the workforce and thrive in their communities. They are exploring career possibilities in an expanding aerospace industry while preparing for careers that have yet to be created.”

Go for Launch! is a space-focused event from Higher Orbits, in partnership with Florida 4-H and UF. The event, planned for June, will train 60 teens as “space ambassadors” to teach another 1,200 youth about space science.

Kids will work in teams with astronauts and space industry personnel to design experiments, which will be eligible to compete for a chance to launch to the International Space Station.

Past iterations of the event have seen big success.

In 2022, Florida 4-H participated in the event with affiliated groups from across the nation.

Celine Torkzad, from Clay County, participated on the winning team that year. Her experiment was then conducted on the International Space Station. The team’s experiment focused on growing spirulina in space as a nutrient source. Kids, and even many adults, often don’t realize how connected space and plant sciences are, with plants playing an integral role on space stations and, eventually, far-away colonies. Plants are necessary on any planet to feed people and to remove carbon dioxide from breathable air.

“Our students are learning about how they are connected to space science back on Earth and how agriculture is essential as we stretch out to the stars,” said Noelle Guay, the Palm Beach County 4-H Extension agent who has been leading activities in her county on space and plant science.

Guay’s work with students at Okeeheelee Middle School, where she teaches, includes the Tomatosphere project, which provides students with tomato seeds that have been to space to use in experiments.

As Guay explains, getting tomato seeds that have been to space includes a lot of steps — it’s not just a trip to the neighborhood nursery. First, the American Seed Trade Association’s First the Seed Foundation works with the International Space Station National Laboratory to send the seeds to space, and then bring them back later for classroom use across the U.S.

Guay’s 4-H club received two sets of seeds, one set that was aboard the International Space Station from SpaceX’s Dragon rocket, and the other that never went to space at all — a constant and a variable for those who remember their science lessons. Students don’t know which seeds are which.

Students then plant both sets of seeds and take observations as they germinate, including measuring differences in how long it takes the seeds to germinate, how high they grow and how fast they grow.

The students’ results are then sent to First the Seed Foundation to learn which set of seeds had stayed on Earth and which had traveled through space. The results help students understand how microgravity affects seed germination.

Guay’s students have participated in other space-based experiments, including creating a mock space loading vehicle for a Mars landing mission.

“The goal is to excite kids about science and help our ambassadors learn leadership, communication and teamwork,” she said.

In Clay County, students are working on “Moon Trees,” trees that grew from seedlings that went to space on lunar missions and returned to Earth to be planted.

Elaine Simfukwe is the 4-H Extension agent in Clay County who taught the Moon Tree workshop. Her students have worked with three Moon Trees — one from the Apollo 14 mission that was planted in Keystone Heights, another from the Artemis mission that now lives at UF’s Institute of Food and Agriculture Extension office in Clay County, and the third also from the Artemis mission that was planted at Orange Park Elementary School.

Simfukwe taught a citizen science activity demonstrating how to measure the height of the seedlings across the county. The results were entered into NASA’s GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) Observer program, an international science and education program to educate individuals about the connections between space and the environment.

“These programs teach our youth the knowledge and skills they need for the jobs of tomorrow — whether on Earth or beyond,” she said.

UF’s 4-H Youth Development program provides youth with opportunities, like these space-based science experiments, to develop skills, accrue knowledge and explore career paths within a variety of topics ranging from agriculture to robotics and even mock government. It also offers a Collegiate 4-H program, volunteer opportunities and sponsorships. More information is available online.