SNOW HILL, Md. -- On Monday morning, students and teachers at Snow Hill Middle School planted their newly acquired moon tree. It's not just a clever name, either, because the tree's seed actually circled the Moon.
A group of students chanted 3...2...1...blast "ground" as Principal Matthew Record planted the moon tree into its final landing spot on Snow Hill Middle School grounds.
School staff hope the intergalactic plant will inspire wonder, and it's safe to say it's already working.
"I want to say that it might grow moon cheese and if it did grow five of my principal, then that would be awesome," said fourth grader De'myni Collick.
If you're curious why you just read "five of my principal," that's kid math for you.
"My principal is six feet tall and this tree is going to be thirty feet tall, so that is five of my principal," said Collick.
Before the tree ended up in Worcester County, it was onboard NASA's Orion Spacecraft as part of the Artemis I Mission. Numerous tree seeds, including sweetgum, sycamore, Douglas fir, and loblolly pine(Snow Hill's tree), were onboard as Orion circled the Moon for 25 days.
As student Austin Powell will tell you, those seeds went on an incredible journey.
"Something really cool, it's traveled over 1.4 million miles all around space and Earth," said Powell.
After landing safely on Earth, the seeds were shipped off to the Midwest.
"They grew them and researched them and then the program basically allowed for schools and non-profits and organizations to apply and get a moon tree," said Beau Williams, Media Specialist at Snow Hill Middle School.
Snow Hill did apply, and fast-forward to Monday, November 18th, students and staff can now proudly say they are one of 50 schools in the entire country that can claim a moon tree as their own.
Now that the moon tree has arrived, students have focused on a much more pressing topic: will this tree attract aliens to Earth?
Collick hopes it does, especially after her principal made a promise he might regret should aliens actually land in Snow Hill.
"I'm feeling awesome because my principal said that if we follow the rule protocol, I might get to keep one as a pet and I told him we need a landing pad so it can land," said Collick.
WBOC has not yet heard whether Snow Hill Middle School plans to build a landing pad, but we will certainly follow this development.
In the meantime, Williams said they will use the tree for educational purposes.
"It's important for our kids to see, to think about the future, to think about possibilities with STEM," said Williams. "Making those connections, you know it's something that tangible, it's right here."
A day of wonder at Snow Hill Middle School as a space sapling found its forever home.
