Project out of this world

North Shore pupils have teamed up with peers from China to solve the problem of how to feed astronauts in space.

Eighty-one pupils from Birkdale Intermediate School gave up holiday time to work on the project during Waitangi weekend, principal Richard Coote says. They buddied up with 120 pupils from Auckland’s sister city, Ningbo, in China.

The pupils researched the topic of using hydroponic plants to feed astronauts during a long journey to Mars or the International Space Station, Coote says.

They used iPads to listen to interviews with scientists from China and hydroponics experts from New Zealand, then selected three seedlings to plant in a hydroponic setup at Birkdale Intermediate School’s technology centre.

While the Chinese children have returned to Ningbo, they get sent weekly written reports and photographs, Coote says.

Birkdale pupil Shadae Chan Valentine says, so far, the results are good.

‘‘We have been using ‘fair testing’ and comparing whether it is better to grow plants in dirt or water. We will be looking after the plants for eight weeks, measuring them every Friday and letting the pupils from China know how their plants are going by using [app] WeChat,’’ she says.

‘‘We cannot wait to see the final results,’’ Ellie Humphries adds.

SUPPLIED Leyi Shen, Breanna Keating, Xingyue Zhu, Zili Lu, Syndie Johnson and Hannah Hardy create hydroponics for astronauts.