By Matt de Simone
Lord Botetourt High School (LBHS) was recently selected to receive a NASA Moon Tree, a unique opportunity to connect with space exploration. The sweetgum tree arrived last week to coincide with the school’s celebration of “Moon Week” during the last week of October where students engaged in educational activities centered around space, science, history, and the importance of trees to the environment.
“We jumpstarted our moon festivities with Mr. Martin and our Air and Space Club,” Lord Botetourt graduate-now science teacher Cailin Panell shared last week. “They set up telescopes the other week to view the super moon, Saturn, and a comet during the LB vs. William Byrd football game. LBHS designated the entire last week of October as Moon Week, which worked out wonderfully since it aligned with Halloween. Classes participated in a door decorating contest revolving around the Moon Tree.”
Panell applied for the tree in fall 2024 and learned the school would be receiving the tree in August.
“It is a huge honor to be selected as a location for a Moon Tree and we really wanted to celebrate,” Panell continued. “I am always looking for opportunities for students to learn in new and interesting ways and this seemed like a perfect fit for Botetourt.”
According to a NASA release from last week, its Office of STEM Engagement partnered with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service to fly five species of tree seeds aboard Artemis I as part of a national STEM Engagement and Conservation Education initiative. The project builds on the legacy of the original moon trees, which were planted in the 1970s after NASA astronaut Stuart Roosa orbited the moon with tree seeds in his kit.
Roosa, the command module pilot for 1971’s Apollo 14 mission and a former USDA Forest Service smoke jumper, carried tree seeds into lunar orbit. The Apollo 14 Moon Trees were grown into seedlings by the USDA Forest Service and eventually disseminated to national monuments and dignitaries around the world, with a large number distributed as part of the nation’s bicentennial event.
In a nod to the legacy of Apollo 14, and a celebration of the future of space exploration with NASA’s Artemis Program, a “new generation” of Moon Tree seeds traveled into lunar orbit aboard the Orion spacecraft in 2022. The seeds travelled thousands of miles beyond the moon, spending about four weeks in space before returning to Earth.
The Artemis I Moon Trees, rooted in the legacy of the original Moon Trees flown by Roosa during Apollo 14, journeyed 270,000 miles from Earth aboard the Orion spacecraft. A diverse array of tree species, including sycamores, sweet gums, Douglas firs, loblolly pines, and giant sequoias, were flown around the surface of the moon. The first batch of seedlings will ship to almost 50 institutions across 48 contiguous U.S. states.
Photos courtesy of LBHS
Some of the Lord Botetourt Moon Week door decoration concepts included: space exploration, myths and legends about the moon, Greek mythology of Artemis and Orion (names of the mission and ship the seeds went on), lunar phases, and moon references in music and pop culture. Teachers incorporated moon themes into lessons such as reading stories about moon myths in Spanish or analyzing data to see if there is a relationship between moon phases and crimes– turns out there isn’t.
Through NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM) and NASA’s Artifact Module, museums, universities, federal agencies, including NASA Field Centers, and K-12 serving organizations were invited to apply for ownership of a Moon Tree seedling. Recipient selection is underway for organizations according to a distribution schedule aligned to four planting cycles: Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, and Fall 2025.
In addition to helping get the tree to Lord Botetourt, Panell worked with school staff to help spread the word.
“I also created mini-STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) stations for teachers to bring classes to throughout the week which included tree identification, using natural materials in art, crater formation, egg drop contests, nocturnal animals, and engineering structures,” Panell added. “We even had a Moon Walk dance competition during lunch. The entire school really got on board with the theme and it has inspired students to be curious and creative.”
The sweet gum tree has been planted at the school and a celebration in welcoming the Moon Tree to Botetourt is planned for spring 2025.
