2 Big Country schools receive Artemis I Trees that flew around the moon

ABILENE/CLYDE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) — Wylie East Elementary and Clyde Elementary Schools received sapling trees whose seeds were on the Artemis I spacecraft as it flew around Earth’s moon.

This story is literally out of this world. Not one, but two Big Country schools are now the recipients of a “Moon Tree.” This is part of a nationwide program to plant trees in significant sights across the nation whose seeds were aboard the Artemis I spacecraft that traveled around the moon in late 2022.

Locations chosen to shepherd these unique trees vary from libraries to museums to other government facilities. The two local schools chosen to permanently house these moon trees were Clyde Elementary School and Wylie Intermediate East Elementary School. 4th-grade teacher and person responsible for applying for the moon tree at Wylie East, Mandy Roberts, explained some of the histories behind this practice.

“One of the Apollo missions back in the early seventies did this. It was a suggestion by one of the astronauts then at the time, and this was kind of… not an homage necessarily, but like an anniversary type event that, “Hey, we have a shuttle going up, and so we could do this again,” Roberts shared.

Teacher Cay Collins applied for the moon tree for Clyde Elementary and spoke a little about the application process.

“About a year ago, we got some information from NASA that they were taking applications for the moon tree seedlings, and we submitted our application and went through the application process and received some information a year later that we were finalists to receive a moon tree, and then shortly after that we received our moon tree,” Collins explained.

Collins is the STEAM Lab Teacher for Clyde Elementary School and also described how having this moon tree aids in their student’s learning.

“Oh, of course, it adds to the curriculum. We study the forces of flight, and we revisit the solar system. Being able to see something that has actually orbited the moon makes it real for our students,” Collins said.

The Artemis I seeds are limited, with only around 500 seeds flown by NASA. The trees provided to the Big Country schools are American Sweetgum trees.