NC Middle School Soars to Regional Honors in “Plant the Moon” Challenge

The “AVID Curiosity” team from Culbreth Middle School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, recently won the ‘Best Middle School’ regional award in the “Plant the Moon Challenge” NASA Space Grant Regional Project. Led by Christine Sudzina Schut, the team competed against 360 other schools, clubs, and education organizations involving over 3,600 students across five southeastern states and Puerto Rico.

The NASA Space Grant Regional Project builds on the International Competition Sciences’ Plant the Moon Challenge by expanding the reach of the challenge to underserved and underrepresented STEM students in five partnering states: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Florida, and Puerto Rico. The competition challenges students to examine how vegetable crops can grow in lunar soil. Using lunar soil simulant from the University of Central Florida’s CLASS Exolith Lab, the teams designed and conducted a set of experiments using the simulant to grow crops over eight weeks for a future long-duration mission.

In North Carolina, 74 middle and high school teams and a total of 1,200 students competed in the challenge. Here are the middle and high school state winners:

• For Evaluation of Results, the AVID Curiosity team from Culbreth Middle School in Chapel Hill, NC led by Christine Sudzina Schut, and the Moon Cheese team from Innovation Early College High School in Greenville, NC led by Klara Higgins
• For Experimental Design, AVID Astronauts team from Culbreth Middle School in Chapel Hill, NC led by Christine Sudzina Schut, and Team MWEZI from Innovation Early College High School in Greenville, NC led by Klara Higgins
• For Growth, the Luna Bean team from Springfield Middle School in Wilson, NC led by Victoria Barnes, and the Astronomy Agents team from Innovation Early College High School in Greenville, NC led by Klara Higgins
• For Innovation, Team I from Martin Millennium Academy from Tarboro, NC led by Cherelle Sanders, and the Lunar Landscapers team from Innovation Early College High School in Greenville, NC led by Klara Higgins

The state winners moved on for consideration of regional ‘Best in Show,’ granted to the top middle and high school. The Institute of Competition Sciences engaged a panel of NASA and industry scientists, program executives, and other dignitaries to determine Best in Show award winners from the region.

“We are proud of all students who participated in this real-world science challenge and the ‘AVID Curiosity’ team for their regional accolades,” says Jobi Cook, associate director of NC Space Grant. “The students’ research efforts will help NASA scientists understand how to use lunar soil to provide nutritious crops for future missions to the Moon and Mars.”

The “AVID Curiosity” team will receive its award at a ceremony at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 21.