ASTRONAUT Tim Peake's trip into space has a special significance for some Worcester schoolchildren.

Pupils from year 1 and 2 at Perry Wood Primary and Nursery School watched the British ESA astronaut embark on his Principia mission to the International Space Station knowing that they too will soon be carrying out space-related research.

As part of the mission, which sees Mr Peake become the first British astronaut in space for 20 years, the children have been invited to become space biologists.

They will take part in Rocket Science, an educational project launched by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and the UK Space Agency.

Perry Wood will be one of up to 10,000 schools which will receive a packet of 100 seeds from space, which they will grow alongside seeds that haven’t been to space and measure the differences over seven weeks.

The seeds were part of a parcel of 2kg of rocket seeds flown to the International Space Station (ISS) on Soyuz 44S where they will spend several months in microgravity before returning to Earth in March 2016.

The children won’t know which seed packet contains which seeds until all results have been collected by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and analysed by professional biostatisticians.

The out-of-this-world, nationwide science experiment will enable the children to think more about how we could preserve human life on another planet in the future, what astronauts need to survive long-term missions in space and the difficulties surrounding growing fresh food in challenging climates.

Year 2 teacher Georgia Mitchell said: “We are very excited to be taking part in Rocket Science.

"This experiment is a fantastic way of teaching our children to think more scientifically and share their findings with others.

"Rocket Science is just one educational project from a programme developed by the UK Space Agency to celebrate British ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s Principia mission to the ISS and inspire young people to look into careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects, including horticulture."

Applications to take part in Rocket Science are still open and will close in March next year or until all packs have been allocated.

Schools and educational groups can apply at rhs.org.uk/schoolgardening.

The project can be followed on twitter: @RHSSchools #RocketScience