School holiday activities that are fun, COVID-safe and educational? Sign us up! The Australian National University (ANU) has teamed up with Dark Sky Innovations, who has developed the StarFest 2020 virtual Goose Chase, a three-week long “gigantic scavenger hunt” that can be played in teams or by individuals from a mobile device.

“The Goose Chase game has a list of missions for participants to choose from to play at any time – snap a photo or video or type a written response, then submit to earn points all using the Goose Chase app on your mobile device,” says Dark Sky Innovations’ Vivian Evans.

“The game enables everyone to stay safe whilst connected, with a bit of friendly rivalry.”

The Goose Chase game forms part of StarFest, a yearly weekend of events at the Siding Springs Observatory in Coonabarabran, which this year has gone virtual.

“This year due to COVID-19 uncertainty the ANU StarFest Committee put out a call for virtual activities,” Ms Evans says.

“We were able to offer a tailored astronomical Goose Chase to capture all ages and astronomy interest levels. It leads the way to more exciting events in the virtual StarFest program.”

The Goose Chase missions include answering the question ‘if you could live on one planet anywhere in the Milky Way Galaxy, what would it be and why?’; recreating a famous or iconic space themed picture or video; and creating an astronauts fitness obstacle course in the backyard.

The Goose Chase starts today, Friday 18 September, and will run to Sunday 11 October to cover all Australian school holidays.

For more information or to register for the Goose Chase, visit the Dark Sky Innovations website. Visit the StarFest website for the full program of events.

For more school holiday activities, check out our spring school holiday activity guide here.