Make a terrarium to grow grass on the Moon

In this activity learners will make use of the theme of football on the moon to make an experiment of terrarium, so that grass can be grown for a lunar football game.

This is one of a series of resources that are designed to allow learners to use the theme of football on the moon to develop their knowledge and skills in Science, Design & Technology and Engineering. This resource focusses on making a closed terrarium with glass jars to show how grass could be grown on the moon, therefore overcoming some of the external temperature issues of growing grass in this environment.

Activity: Make a terrarium to grow grass on the Moon

The teacher will introduce the activity and the theme of travelling to the moon, before discussing the challenge with learners. Teachers can carry out demonstrations at stages throughout the lesson to show what is required and check that all learners understand and carry actions out in the correct order.

This activity can be simplified (particularly for less able students) by providing pre-measured amounts of materials and marked jars for learners to fill to.

As an extension students can discuss and experiment with the effects of rotating the jars. What would happen if this didn’t take place? Students could also have a go at identifying other plants that could be grown in the terrarium for use on the moon e.g. food plants.

This activity is designed to take between 35-65 minutes plus growing time and of course, caring for your terrarium. 

Tools/resources required

• Clean jam jar and lid
• Activated charcoal
• Stones
• Soil
• Grass seed

The engineering context

Travelling and potentially living on the moon presents all sorts of challenges for engineers to overcome. For example, how will we breathe, how will we cope with much lower gravity, how will we play sports and keep fit? How will we grow plants, grass and food?

Suggested learning outcomes

 By the end of this free resource students will be able to understand the concept of living organisms surviving on the Moon; set up an experiment to grow grass in a terrarium and be able to evaluate the findings of the experiment.

Download the free Make a terrarium to grow grass on the Moon activity sheet below!

All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs.

The activity sheet includes teacher notes, guidance, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved UK nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

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