Science. So much data to collect, not nearly enough hours in the day. Five years into a ten-year project, the Seed Conservation Department of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew were faced with this issue. Their solution was, you’ve probably guessed, to recruit school students and their teachers.
This year, two schools are involved in a pilot study to help protect plant biodiversity and contribute to the formal research already going on in an ambitious conservation project. International Baccalaureate students from Ardingly College in West Sussex and A-level students from Mexborough School Specialist Science College in Doncaster are helping scientists at the Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) test the lifespan of seeds when put in storage.
The seed bank is a huge, underground vault, containing seeds from all over the world. It’s been made un-breachable: blast-proof, radiation-proof, ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ proof and, to combat that ultimate threat to all seeds, squirrel proof.
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