Florida 4-H aims for the stars with space-focused career advancement programs

Florida youth are setting their career sights on the stars with the 4-H youth development program’s space-based career initiatives.

Educators across Florida 4-H have incorporated space science into their STEM lessons, with youth learning about how agriculture collides with engineering in this innovative industry. The goal is to inspire youth to pursue space-based careers, especially in the Sunshine State.

“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!

Florida 4-H is teaming up with Higher Orbits to host their premier space-focused event, Go for Launch!, in June and will train 60 teens as “space ambassadors” to teach another 1,200 youth about space science.
The youth will work in teams alongside astronauts and space industry personnel to design experiments that will then compete for a chance to launch to the International Space Station.

Florida 4-H previously participated in the Go for Launch! event in 2022 alongside 4-H groups from across the country. Celine Torkzad, of Clay County, Florida, was on the winning team whose experiment was conducted on the International Space Station. The team’s experiment focused on growing spirulina in space as a nutrient source. 

In Palm Beach County, Noelle Guay, the county 4-H Extension agent, has been leading activities countywide on space and plant science. The two are more connected than you might think. Without plants on space stations and on far-away colonies, long-term astronauts won’t have food or ways to remove carbon dioxide from their 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,” she said.

Tomatosphere ^TM

Guay partners with teachers  at Okeeheelee Middle School to engage their students in the process of scientific experimentation and inquiry through the TomatosphereTM project, in which students receive tomato seeds that have been to space.

To achieve this, First the Seed Foundation (FTSF), established by the American Seed Trade Association, and the International Space Station National Laboratory work together to send tomato seeds to space and bring them back to Earth for classroom use across the U.S., Guay said. 

Guay’s in-school 4-H club received two sets of seeds from the program. One set of seeds had been to the International Space Station via SpaceX’s Dragon rocket, while one set had remained on Earth. The 4-H youth planted the seeds and watched as they germinated, measuring differences in how long it took the plants to germinate, their height and their rate of growth.

After students collected data, Guay said, they sent their results to FTSF to learn which seed set had been to space and whether the microgravity affected seed germination.

Her students have participated in other space-themed science activities, such as creating a mock space landing 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.

Moon Trees

In Clay County, Florida 4-H Extension agent Elaine Simfukwe taught a workshop about the county’s Moon Trees, trees that grew from seedlings that went to space on lunar missions and returned to Earth to be planted.

Clay County has three Moon Trees in the county: one from the Apollo 14 mission that was planted in Keystone Heights, one from the Artemis mission that is at the UF/IFAS Extension Clay County office and one from the Artemis mission at Orange Park Elementary School. 

Simfukwe taught and demonstrated a citizen science activity about how to measure the height of the seedlings across the county, which were entered into NASA’s GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) Observer program, an international science and education program to educate 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.