How much climate-damaging CO2 can be captured from the air by plants on a parcel of one square meter within three months? High School students from 14 schools in North Rhine-Westphalia took part in a competition organized by CEPLAS, Bayer AG and the Invite research institute. The group of students from Franz Haniel Gymnasium in Duisburg was successful with its cultivation of summer rapeseed and won first prize.
This was the second time that the school competition had been called, in which plant seeds were to be sown on one square meter of land and three months later as much biomass as possible was to be harvested, thus binding as much CO2 as possible. The groups of students of different ages developed a lot of creativity, growing crops on several levels or carpentering their own small greenhouse. All teams kept a plant diary and entered all measures taken on the plot there. When the diaries were evaluated, it quickly became apparent that it was not so much the selection of the crop that was decisive for success, but rather the care of the plants, especially regular watering.
The Gertrud-Koch-Gesamtschule from Troisdorf came second with a mixed crop of pumpkin and oil radish, among others, followed by the Gymnasium Odenthal, which had chosen a mixed crop of pumpkin and summer rapeseed and other crops.
The teams of students from the three schools can now look forward to class trips to Bayer AG or CEPLAS, where they will get to know the everyday life of researchers and gain insights into the fascinating world of plant sciences.