Brick Memorial students take part in The Growing Beyond Earth program Control Study that helps determine growth characteristics of certain plant types.   This information then gets relayed to NASA and helps them determine which plants they should attempt to grow in space.  This project is ultimately put in place to get ready for long term space flight so that astronauts can have better food when traveling to places like Mars.  The program is fully funded by NASA and is run by both NASA and the Fairchild institute down in Florida.  Another company named MARS Farm sends us special Growth Chambers that allow us to change the lighting  intensity and color so that we can test different growth scenarios on the plants.  Different colors of light have different effects on plants.

The Science Students of Brick Memorial High School take part in two different studies over the course of the year.  Trial 1. takes place in the fall.  In this study we are growing a specific plant that is determined by NASA and the Fairchild institute.  The seeds and other supplies are sent to us before the trial begins.  Over the course of the 4 week trial we collect detailed data and input it into a spreadsheet for NASA.  That google sheet is shared directly with NASA and Fairchild Institute.  They then use that data to help determine the growth characteristics of those plants so that they can fine tune how they will grow them in space.

Trial 2 takes place in the spring.  In this trial, we come up with our own experiment to be conducted on the plants.  Once done with our trial and data collection, we then present our findings to NASA scientists down in Florida via Zoom.  We have been part of the program now for 3 years and have done exceptionally well.  Year 1 we placed 2nd in the entire country.  Year 2 we placed 4th in the entire country.  This year we were within the top 11 in the country.

There are over 100 schools around the country, Puerto Rico, and even some in Turkey that are taking part in the project so it has been pretty cool to see the results.  In addition, Mr. Ben Schaible is one of the Growing Beyond Earth Ambassador teachers.  He meets once a month with the Program Director and about 5 or 6 other teachers around the country to help talk through the project and help make it better from year to year.