Moonshot.
An experiential, wrap-around STEM curriculum built around the NASA Artemis missions to the Moon — developed with Space Center Houston over five years, and already delivered in classrooms across Italy, Austria and India.
AUDIENCE
K–12 · all grades
PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
Nine modules · CAPSTONE projects
PEDAGOGY
Workshop Model
Not in addition to the curriculum. It wraps around the curriculum
Moonshot is an experiential wrap-around curriculum. It is not a programme added on top of what schools already teach. It integrates with the existing curriculum and transforms it — taking the subjects students are already studying and turning them into an experience seen through the lens of space exploration.
This is the distinction that matters to every school director, every ministry and every teacher who has ever considered an external programme. Schools cannot make space in their week for one more thing; they can make space for a way of teaching that improves the time they already have.
In elementary schools, the classroom teacher delivers the full Moonshot pathway. In middle and high schools, content teachers carry it into their own subjects — physics, mathematics, biology, economics, engineering — wherever it naturally fits. The programme is designed, from the ground up, around the way real schools already work.
Moonshot Program preview video.
Across K-12, Moonshot is built with Space Center Houston — the world’s leading science and human space exploration learning center, and the educational authority directly connected to the NASA Artemis missions. The content is theirs. The pedagogical model is theirs. Novi is the partner that brings that authority into schools, anywhere in the world.
A structured pathway from kindergarten to the Conrad Challenge.
Moonshot is organised across four grade bands, each with its own pedagogical focus. Within each band, every grade has a dedicated Expedition and a CAPSTONE project of its own — building, year after year, towards real-world scientific and entrepreneurial work.
Band 01 · ES K–2
Astronaut candidates.
Main focus: an introduction to space and getting children excited about STEM through age-appropriate exploration and play.
Grade K
Space as a location
Capstone
The student in space
Grade 1
Student as an astronaut
Capstone
Becoming an astronaut
Grade 2
Living on the Moon
Capstone
Student in a STEM field
Band 02 · ES 3–5
Basics of space.
Main focus: learning key scientific concepts and putting them into practice through workshop experiments — Expeditions I, II and III.
Grade 3 · Expedition I
Body systems
Capstone
Spacesuit Design Challenge
Grade 4 · Expedition II
Energy & Newton's Laws
Capstone
Rocket Design Challenge
Grade 5 · Expedition III
Conservation of Matter
Capstone
Life Support Design Challenge
Band 03 · MS 6–8
Life on the Moon.
Main focus: exploring the challenges of the current Artemis II mission — Expeditions IV, V and VI, with content teachers carrying the curriculum into their domain.
Grade 6 · Expedition IV
Coding & Technology
Capstone
Lunar Exploration Vehicle
Grade 7 · Expedition V
Science on the Moon
Capstone
Lunar Science Experiment
Grade 8 · Expedition VI
Full Moonshot Curriculum
Capstone
Model of a Lunar Base
Band 04 · HS 9–12
Space economy & careers.
Main focus: STEM careers, entrepreneurial projects and global science competitions — Expeditions VII, VIII, IX, culminating in a submission to the SCH Global Conrad Challenge.
Grade 9 · Exp. VII
Coding & Technology
Capstone
Entrepreneurial Space Project
Grade 10 · Exp. VIII
Science on the Moon
Capstone
Space Spinoff Invention
Grades 11–12 · Exp. IX
Design Tomorrow Today
Capstone
Proposal to the SCH Global Conrad Challenge
University prep
Entrepreneurial work that supports university applications
Recognition
Real-world competitive submission
The Workshop Model of instruction.
Moonshot is delivered through the Workshop Model — a recognised pedagogical framework that turns students from passive recipients of information into critical thinkers and problem solvers, developing the 21st-century skills they will need to succeed in the real world.
The three components.
Mini lesson
Teachers model a skill, strategy or step of a project — but use brevity. The point is to demonstrate, not to lecture.
Workshop
Students work on their own or in small groups, applying the skill in practice. This is where learning actually happens.
Reflection & debrief
Students share examples of their work, their successes and their challenges. Learning from mistakes becomes part of the practice.
The three benefits.
Students learn by doing
Students learn and retain information better when they are allowed to explore the boundaries of a topic, rather than memorise it.
Differentiated, targeted instruction
The mini lesson and debrief may be the same for the whole class, but the workshop assignments adapt to each student’s abilities.
Develops accountability
The model demands student participation and engagement. Students become responsible for driving their own learning.
A platform designed to deliver Moonshot anywhere.
The Moonshot platform — under build with CTC Health (Geneva) — makes the programme deliverable at scale while preserving the standard of delivery that NASA educators establish in person. The role of the partner does not change. The reach does.
An AI Teacher Agent.
An AI tutor for teachers, scoped to the most challenging lessons of the Space Center Houston training programme. The agent supports the educator; it is never visible to students, and never an open-domain chatbot.
A structured teacher portal.
Lesson plans, exercise guides, PowerPoints, embedded training and progression dashboards — all accessed through a portal designed for the working reality of the classroom.
Module-by-module progression.
Content unlocks progressively as teachers advance through the curriculum, ensuring students encounter material in sequence and supported by their teacher.
Live astronaut sessions.
Periodic live events with NASA astronauts and Space Center Houston educators, embedded within the platform and accessible to participating students alone.
Compliance built in.
The platform is architected for COPPA and GDPR Kids compliance from day one. Auto-generated student credentials, no email required, streaming-only access by design.
Institutional visibility.
School and ministry-level dashboards provide adoption metrics, engagement data and programme quality indicators — what institutional partners need to evaluate, defend and expand the programme.
A formal certification, at three levels.
Moonshot includes a structured certification system — for schools, teachers and students — designed to be recognised within institutional, professional and academic contexts.
For schools
Moonshot Certified School letter.
Programming rovers and exploration tools. Coding under conditions of limited communication and resilience requirements.
Issued
Yearly · per participating institution
For teachers
Moonshot Certified Educator credential.
Teachers complete a structured professional development pathway that combines virtual training with in-person sessions delivered by Space Center Houston instructors. Upon completion, they become certified Moonshot educators.
Issued
Virtual + in-person · led by SCH
For students
Certificate of completion with Expedition number.
Each student who participates in and completes the Moonshot curriculum for their grade receives a certificate of completion, designating the grade level and the Expedition Number — a credential they can present in their school records and, in time, in their university applications.
Issued
Yearly · per student, per grade
A project over a decade in the making
The Moonshot programme is the result of years of work that predate the incorporation of Novi Education itself. Built and refined through five years of co-development with Space Center Houston, the programme has been delivered in classrooms across Italy, Austria and India.
The project takes shape.
Over more than ten years before the incorporation of Novi Education, the founding team develops the conviction, the relationships and the educational architecture that will eventually become Moonshot. The company that launches in 2024 is the operational expression of a project long in the making.
Partnership agreement with Space Center Houston finalised.
After five years of co-development work between Novi and Space Center Houston, the formal partnership agreement is signed. Moonshot moves from concept to active programme.
Pre-pilot delivered in Italian private schools.
The first classroom delivery of Moonshot takes place in Italian private schools — the first signal that the programme works in the working reality of a school.
Agreement with the Austrian Ministry of Education.
Novi signs a roll-out agreement with the Austrian Ministry of Education for the delivery of Moonshot across public high schools, with the engagement supported by an institutional foundation.
Italian public school pilot, with government support.
Moonshot enters Italian public schools with the support of the Italian government at both regional and national level, and with the engagement partially supported by a corporate institutional partner.
Programme reengineered with Space Center Houston.
Based on the learnings from the 2024 deployments, the curriculum is comprehensively reengineered with Space Center Houston, starting from the elementary years. The Expedition structure and the workshop methodology are sharpened.
The reengineered programme returns to Italian classrooms.
The new version of Moonshot launches in Italian elementary and middle schools, reflecting the structural improvements made during the summer.
First delivery in India.
Moonshot launches in Indian elementary schools — the first delivery of the programme on a third continent, and the beginning of the company’s institutional engagement in Asian markets.
Tech platform development kick-off with CTC Health.
Development of the AI-enabled Moonshot platform begins with CTC Health (Geneva), under signed Master Services Agreement and Statements of Work. Operational launch is scheduled for the 2026–27 academic year.
Affiliate science center
Connection
NASA Johnson Space Center
Standing
World’s leading STEM learning center
Engagement
5 years co-development · multi-year partnership
Space Center Houston, and what makes it irreplaceable.
Space Center Houston is the official visitor center and museum for NASA’s Johnson Space Center — the hub for human spaceflight mission control, astronaut training and spacecraft research. It is a Smithsonian Affiliate science center, and the world’s leading science and human space exploration STEM learning center.
Beyond its public role, Space Center Houston is a world leader in STEM education, educator professional development, and leadership programmes for industry professionals. That is the dimension of the institution that anchors Moonshot: not the museum, but the educational engine — the people, the materials, the methodology, and the direct connection to the NASA Artemis programme.
Moonshot is the product of five years of co-development between Novi and Space Center Houston. The curriculum is theirs. The teacher training is delivered by their instructors. The certification is co-issued. And the partnership is structured to evolve continuously, with the programme updated to reflect the missions as they unfold.
This is the architecture that defines every Novi programme: the partner is the source of authority; Novi builds the educational vehicle around it. Moonshot is its most visible expression today.
Five stakeholders, one programme.
Moonshot is designed so that every party engaged with it — schools, teachers, students, governments and the partner institutions themselves — finds in it a concrete and distinct value.
Access to unique educational content developed with Space Center Houston, transforming the school into a more attractive destination for both teachers and students — and, year by year, accumulating the credentials of a Moonshot Certified School.
Cutting-edge professional development and a recognised credential as certified Moonshot educators — training delivered in partnership with Space Center Houston instructors themselves.
Real-life skills — teamwork, scientific reasoning, accountability — alongside the science content, plus a yearly certificate of completion that becomes part of their academic record, with the high-school CAPSTONE feeding directly into the SCH Global Conrad Challenge.
A measurable advancement of the national STEM agenda — a better-prepared generation, reduced long-term social costs of educational underperformance, and a credible partnership with an institution directly connected to NASA.
Global access to schools and students at scale, through a delivery model that preserves the partner’s authority while extending its educational reach. The model that brings Space Center Houston into Italian, Austrian and Indian classrooms today is the model that will bring future Novi partners into classrooms tomorrow.
For school networks, ministries of education, foundations and institutional partners interested in adopting Moonshot or in discussing dedicated deployment, please get in touch with our institutional partnerships desk.