DongA Science turns 40 years of science journalism into AI tutor AiR NOVA, a CES 2027 honoree

• AiR NOVA answers K-12 students' science questions using more than 100,000 articles written by DongA Science's own journalists, showing the source article behind each answer.
• Launching in January 2027 on web, iOS and Android in Korean, English, Vietnamese and Spanish.

AiR NOVA's Tutor answers a question about a newly named Korean dinosaur and shows the source article behind the answer. Background imagery is AI-generated.

SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- DongA Science, a South Korean science media company that has published science magazines since 1986, has built an AI tutor on its own journalism. AiR NOVA, which answers students' science questions from the company's archive and shows the source article behind each answer, has been named a CES Innovation Awards^® 2027 Honoree in the EdTech category, the company announced today.

As news publishers around the world weigh how their reporting should be used by AI, DongA Science took a different route by turning its archive into an exclusive learning product. Rather than drawing on the open web, AiR NOVA sources its answers from more than 100,000 articles reported and verified by the company's science journalists over the past 40 years. This archive spans its magazine archive and daily science news, allowing students to verify where each answer originated. Furthermore, students using AiR NOVA in English, Vietnamese or Spanish receive answers in their selected language, alongside the translated source article from the Korean original.

To learn more about AiR NOVA's CES 2027 recognition and explore its AI-driven educational features, visit nova.dongascience.com/intro or watch the introductory video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=03EsRqmuASQ.

Three Ways to Keep Students Asking

AiR NOVA is designed for K-12 students and integrates three core AI functions into a single app:

• Tutor answers questions with verified sources. For instance, if a student asks, "Are new dinosaurs still being discovered?" Tutor explains at their grade level how the Doolysaurus was named in 2026 as Korea's third new dinosaur species, and then displays the reference article.
• Socrates is a patent-pending Socratic-dialogue mode that replies with guiding questions instead of direct answers, encouraging students to reason their way to an explanation in their own words. Students can also upload their inquiry reports, prompting Socrates to ask questions that walk them back through their conclusion process.
• Coach sustains the inquiry process beyond the initial answer. Students work through missions tied to specific articles, which involve predicting, asking questions, checking sources, explaining and reflecting.

In the Classroom

Teachers can utilize Coach to structure lessons around articles that match their curriculum, build worksheets and missions, and track each student's participation and results via comprehensive reports. This significantly reduces the time required to prepare inquiry-based lessons.

At launch, AiR NOVA's science and math content will align with South Korea's national curriculum, the U.S. Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM), Cambridge International and the International Baccalaureate (IB). AiR NOVA will be available in January 2027 on web, iOS and Android platforms, requiring no dedicated device. Pricing details will be announced at a later date.

Built on a Proven Service in South Korean Schools

AiR NOVA is the global edition of DongA Science AiR, the company's established AI science inquiry service in South Korea. The school edition, DongA Science AiR edu, is currently utilized by more than 20,000 students across 170 schools, who collectively complete an average of 5,000 inquiry activities per month. DongA Science developed AiR NOVA based on this extensive operational experience and direct feedback from educators, including practicing teachers collaborating through a classroom problem-solving project run by the Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS), a South Korean public agency.

The Korean service was honored with the Minister of Science and ICT Award at the 2024 Digital Service Frontier Awards, while its school edition received the Minister of Education Award at the 2026 K-EduTech Contest.

Showcasing at CES 2027

AiR NOVA will be featured in the Korea Pavilion at CES 2027, taking place Jan. 6-9, 2027, in Las Vegas. During the event, DongA Science plans to connect with global education institutions and edtech companies.

"This CES Innovation Awards honor reflects our long-standing effort to combine the science content we have built up over many years with AI technology to solve real problems in education," said Kyung-ae Jang, CEO of DongA Science. "We want students around the world to start from a small spark of curiosity and discover the joy of inquiry with AiR NOVA, and we want teachers to be able to design inquiry lessons without the extra burden."

The CES Innovation Awards program, produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), honors outstanding design and engineering in consumer technology products.

About DongA Science

DongA Science is a leading South Korean science media company that connects science journalism with AI technology to broaden how people learn. Starting with its flagship magazine, Science DongA, launched in 1986, it publishes science and math magazines for children and teens and, together with its daily science news, has built an archive of more than 100,000 science articles over 40 years. Content reported and verified by its science journalists is the foundation for building trustworthy AI education products. On that foundation, the company operates the AI science inquiry service DongA Science AiR in South Korea and will launch its global edition, AiR NOVA, in January 2027.

Website: www.dongascience.com/en
About AiR NOVA: nova.dongascience.com/intro
Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=03EsRqmuASQ

CES^® is a registered trademark of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)^®.

SOURCE DongA Science