###### NASA FLORIDA SPACE GRANT CONSORTIUM Univ. of Central Florida, 12354 Research Parkway, Partnership Bldg 1, Rom 218, Orlando, Fl 32816, (321-747-8538)

### Florida Space Grant Consortium Receives NASA Funding for NASA Space Grant Plant the Moon Challenge Project

Contact: Dr. Jaydeep Mukherjee, Director, Florida Space Grant For Release: September 9, 2022 Consortium 321-747-8538; jaydeep.mukherjee@ucf.edu

NASA has announced just over a one-million-dollar award to the Virginia Space Grant Consortium for the NASA Space Grant Plant the Moon Challenge project (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-awards-4-million-through- new-space-grant-kids-opportunity/). The Florida Space Grant Consortium is one of the funded project partners. The proposal is one of four awards made nationally through the NASA Space Grant KIDS funding opportunity which focuses on providing experiences for students to learn about NASA's Artemis mission to return human explorers to the Moon and to Mars. Understanding how we can use lunar soils to grow crops for future human missions is one of the next great steps in supporting a return by humans to the Moon. The Challenge will significantly extend the reach of the Institute of Competition Science 's current international Plant the Moon Challenge in a six-state region that includes partnerships with the North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Florida, and Puerto Rico Space Grant programs. Virginia Space Grant Consortium is serving as project lead.

Plant the Moon Challenge (PTMC), developed by the Institute of Competition Sciences, is a teacher-led student global science experiment, learning activity and inspirational project-based learning challenge to see who can grow the best crops using lunar regolith simulant. Participating educators receive a PTMC Activity Kit for each team of about ten students including lunar regolith simulant, a Project Guide, and a pH meter. Student groups work together to design their plant growth experiments using the simulant. Experiment variables may include the plant growth setup structure, amount of water used, and nutrients added to the regolith simulant. Teacher-advised teams use the Project Guide to define their plant growth experiments. The grow period is eight weeks. For two weeks before the grow period, throughout the grow period, and for two weeks after the grow period, teams are engaged in weekly activities and virtual events that supplement their hands-on project activities with STEM learning activities connecting them with NASA Artemis-related content.

Piloted in 2021 and 2022, the Challenge has engaged over 4,000 students in its first two years. Through this grant, at least 13,080 additional students from targeted underrepresented and underserved populations and 510 formal and informal educators who instruct these students will be engaged with this authentic, Artemis- related, STEM learning experience in the three-year project period.

Florida has been in close partnership with the organizers of PTMC from program inception in spring 2021 and has supported 62 teams comprised of 681 K-12 students. In addition, the Exolith Lab (manufacturer of the lunar and Martian simulant) is managed by the University of Central Florida (UCF), the lead institution for FSGC. According to Melissa Sleeper, the lead teacher for the team from Storm Grove Middle school that won the most innovative award last year, ' The Plant the Moon challenge gave my students valuable experience in conducting authentic scientific research. Winning the award for Best in Show - Innovation, was the icing on the cake. The girls that participated hope to continue their research and talk about one day really planting their crops on the Moon! The entire experience had them rethinking their career goals. They now envision themselves as future scientists and researchers on the Moon '.