TAMPA, Fla. — Science experiments created by several Tampa Bay students will be sent to the International Space Station on Sunday with the launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

One of them is a project created by Lucas McMillin and his lab partner, Grace Kalnins, while they were students at Randall Middle School in Lithia.

"It's amazing. I never thought this would ever happen. I had been trying this for three years and I just kept persevering," said McMillin.

His project beat out thousands of entries in an international competition sponsored by the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.

McMillin said the experiment has to do with growing spinach in microgravity using a mini-lab.

"We have five spinach seeds on one side and then there are clamps and the other side holds water to germinate the seeds," he explained.

McMillin said being able to grow spinach in space could help astronauts stay healthy during longer missions.

"If we're able to get them to germinate in space then we can send spinach plants to grow in space for long duration missions," he said. "Astronauts need to grow their own food in space and spinach is a very nutritious thing to eat."

McMillin will be growing spinach in tubes here on earth at the same time the experiment is going on in space.

Once the astronauts return, the mini-lab they used will be returned to him.

"They'll open up both of the tubes, the one that's been here on earth and the one that's been on the space station and they'll compare the rate of growth of that germination that has occurred between the two," said Mary Vaughn, the teacher who supervised the project.

The data will then be analyzed and possibly used for future missions.

A science experiment created by students at Wendell Krinn Technical High School in Pasco County will also be on-board.

It explores the effects of microgravity on amoxicillin's ability to kill the bacteria that causes staph infections, a critical concern for astronauts living within close quarters.