Inviting the media
Much media attention has been generated by the Tomatosphere Project; journalists have shown in interest in writing, photographing and reporting on participating classrooms. Students in these classrooms, and their reaction to the project are most appealing to journalists. If you wish to generate publicity for your school's Tomatosphere experiment, the sample news release attached may be modified and sent to your local newspaper, radio and television stations.
If you are approached by the media, you may wish to refer journalists to the Tomatosphere web site for basic information and suggest that they visit the Media Room and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) of the web site. There are excellent videos available on the website. This will allow the journalist to gain some background information before coming to your classroom. With the basics about the project, the journalist can then focus on the experiment in your classroom in which the students are involved.
Sample news release
Tomatosphere - Imagine the Possibilities; [your school's name]
[Town/City, Date]
More than 12,000 classrooms of students from grade 2-10 across Canada and many parts of the United States have the opportunity to be a part of the Tomatosphere Project. Tomatosphere is a Canadian-based science and space investigation being conducted this year for the ninth time. The project gives students the opportunity to learn more about plants, space flight, nutrition and the environment and assists with the development of research skills and an understanding of scientific methodology.
"I expect in twenty years time, astronauts will be flying on missions to Mars - and these future astronauts are in our schools right now", noted Marc Garneau, former Canadian Astronaut and formerly president of the Canadian Space Agency. Since the proposed Mars journey will take a minimum of two years, growing plants on board the space vehicle will help replenish the food supply, improve the quality of air and water, and teach us more about the space environment as well as applications of space-related technologies to Earth.
In the Tomatosphere Project in 2010, students will be dealing with two different types of seeds. One type of seed is a control group which will be used as a basis for comparison with the second set of seeds. The control group consists of Heinz H9478 seeds that have had no exposure to any extraneous conditions. The second set of seeds - also Heinz H9478 have spent time on the International Space Station. They were taken into space by CSA Astronaut, Julie Payette in July and returned to Earth in late September and were then sent to Stokes Seeds in Welland, Ontario for packaging in order to be ready for distribution in the spring of 2010.
While in space, the seeds were occasionally checked on by Dr. Bob Thirsk.
Dr. Thirsk returned to Earth on a Russian Soyuz vehicle on December 1, 2009, after 189 days in space, 187 on the International Space Station.
The “treatment” to which the seeds were exposed included a number of elements during their two-month stay on the ISS. These were: 1) an increase in pressure on the Shuttle flight to the ISS, 2) the weightless environment while on board the ISS, 3) a slight increase in the amount of radiation which all living things experience outside of the Earth’s protective atmosphere and 4) on return to the Earth’s atmosphere, the seeds were again exposed to increased pressure.
Tomato seeds were chosen for this experiment because tomatoes are a highly nutritious food source. The plants could be grown in space to provide food, oxygen and water as well as facilitating the removal of carbon dioxide from the air.
Tomatosphere is sponsored by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canadian Space Agency, Heinz Canada Ltd, HeinzSeed, Ontario Centres of Excellence, Stokes Seeds and the University of Guelph.
Here at [school name], we will begin our Tomatosphere experiment on [date of the beginning of the experiment]. At the conclusion of the experiment, students will prepare reports describing their results and the germination results will be sent to the project coordinator to contribute to the results of the program in both Canada and the United States.
You may wish to insert a paragraph about your school and a quote from a school official or teacher (e.g. "The students are excited to be involved in a real space science experiment; they are learning much about the scientific method, teamwork, and the Canadian Space Program).
For more information, media may contact [Name of school official to contact - principal or teacher - and a telephone number] or visit the Tomatosphere web site at www.tomatosphere.org or contact the Project Manager for Tomatosphere – Robert Morrow at projectmanager@tomatosphere.org.
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Tomatosphere is sponsored by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canadian Space Agency, Heinz Canada Ltd, HeinzSeed, Ontario Centres of Excellence, Stokes Seeds and the University of Guelph.
