ACTF News

Our forthcoming education resource will support Year 3-6 teachers and students in addressing the Science curriculum in an engaging way.

In the animated kids’ series Space Nova, it’s the year 2162 and life is a blast for space adventuring siblings, Jet and Adelaide Nova. Along with their parents, Josie and Hugo, these intrepid Aussies spend their days chasing rogue planets, surfing solar flares and avoiding being eaten by every kind of plantimal - all in the name of science! But what the Nova family really want to do is to meet intelligent extra-terrestrial life - something humanity has yet to do. Then everything changes... During a routine mission, the Novas stumble across an abandoned alien craft, powered by a rainbow substance that is so powerful it sends the craft zipping away at speeds humanity never dreamed possible. Although the Novas are unable to capture the craft, they now know there’s a super advanced, intelligent species out there – and they’re going to follow the clues to find them!

The forthcoming Space Nova Teaching Toolkit is a science education resource for Year 3–6 teachers and students. The toolkit identifies engaging scenes from the series, using these as provocations for rich science learning sequences. Each sequence targets a specific year level and is designed to address a particular Science Understanding content descriptor from the indicated year level of the Australian Curriculum. Sequences for year levels focus on the following content:

Year 3: Living things

Year 4: Forces

Year 5: Science and Human Lives

Year 6: Energy

Many of the suggested tasks also link to content descriptors from other learning areas and year levels, making this a useful resource for primary educators. By providing students with tangible experiences and guiding thought-provoking discussions, students will have opportunities to critically analyse their observations and challenge their preconceptions.

This new ACTF education resource will be released in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to the ACTF eNews and social media for further details.

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