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For Teachers

Welcome! This page is your starting point for bringing AIR into a classroom, homeschool, science club, or outreach program. Everything here is free and public domain — adapt it however your students learn best.

!!! abstract "AIR in one minute" Students grow microgreens (fast-growing edible seedlings), photograph them with a small AstroCalibration sticker in frame, and use free image-analysis software to turn those photos into real measurements — then share their data with a global community of young scientists studying how plants might grow in space.

Why astrobotany works in the classroom

  • Low cost, low risk. The core stages need only seeds, water, a tray, and a smartphone camera.
  • Fast results. Microgreens germinate in days, so an investigation fits inside a unit — not a semester.
  • Real data, real science. Students collect and share genuine measurements, not canned worksheet answers.
  • Cross-curricular. Biology, data literacy, engineering, art, and space science all show up naturally.

Choosing where to start

You do not need to run the whole program. Pick a stage that matches your grade band, time, and budget. The Classroom Track (Stages I–IV) is designed for K–12 and needs minimal equipment. The Extension & Research Track (Stages V–XI) suits advanced high-school, undergraduate, or citizen-science learners.

If you have... Try...
One class period and a camera Stage I: Scientific Photography
Internet and a discussion Stage II: Favorite Microgreen
1–2 weeks and a windowsill Stage III: Growing Microgreens
Agar/filter paper and a phone Stage IV: Gravity & Roots

Your classroom superpower: image analysis with the AstroCalibration sticker

The heart of AIR is turning photos of plants into real measurements. A small printed AstroCalibration sticker (the AstroBotany Spectrum) placed in each photo gives free software a known size and colour to calibrate against — so an ordinary phone snapshot becomes scientific data. The classroom loop is the same in every stage:

  1. 🏷️ Add the sticker to your growing tray or agar plate.
  2. 📷 Photograph your plants the same way each time — Stage I: Scientific Photography.
  3. 📐 Measure with free computer vision (PlantCV):
  4. Green Area Index — how fast the leafy canopy fills in.
  5. Root System Architecture — root length and the gravity response.
  6. 📲 Share your numbers (e.g. via Epicollect5) so classes worldwide can compare.

!!! tip "Get your stickers" Order AstroCalibration stickers from Sticker Mule → stickermule.com/drb2025.

Standards alignment

AIR activities are mapped to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). See the alignment tables to plug AIR into your existing scheme of work:

Show what your students learned 📊

Quiz your class before and after the lesson and let the improvement speak for itself. AIR includes a ready-made self-scoring pre/post quiz that saves each student's baseline and then shows their personal learning gain — plus a question bank you can drop into paper or a Google Form, and the simple maths for reporting class gains.

Assessment & Learning Gains Open the quiz directly

Tools your students will use

We are brand-agnostic, but these free tools have a proven classroom track record:

  • AstroCalibration sticker — the size + colour reference that turns a photo into measurable, comparable data.
  • PlantCV — free computer vision that detects the sticker and measures your plants (green area & roots).
  • Epicollect5 — collect and share data from a phone; no account needed for students to contribute.
  • Easy Leaf Area — measure leaf area from a photo (Windows, Android, iOS, Linux).

Good teaching practice with AIR

  • Have students keep a science journal (paper or a shared doc) recording methods, amounts, and timestamps — this is what makes the work reproducible.
  • Change only one or two variables per experiment (light, water, seed type).
  • Photograph samples at the same time and distance each day for comparable data.
  • Always include the AstroCalibration sticker in frame so photos can be measured.
  • Discuss data sharing and online safety before students post results publicly.
  • Run the pre-class quiz before you start and the post-class quiz after, so you can evidence what students learned.

Safety notes

  • Use food-grade seeds sold for sprouting/microgreens and follow the supplier's rinsing guidance to limit microbial growth.
  • Microgreens grown for a data experiment on agar or treated media are not for eating — keep edible and experimental grows clearly separated and labelled.
  • Follow your institution's policies for any chemicals used in the research-track stages.

Contribute back

AIR gets better when teachers share what worked. Found a typo, have a better lesson hook, or want to add a translation? Use the edit pencil at the top of any page, or open an issue or pull request on GitHub. Because the content is CC0, your contributions help classrooms everywhere.