Boston’s Museum of Science has arrived in the metaverse with the launch of ‘Mission: Mars’, an immersive and educational game on Roblox.
Players of Mission: Mars, a partnership with Filament Games, can solve engineering challenges as they explore the red planet in a customisable Mars rover.
Users can complete missions in this virtual world, discovering past evidence of water, collecting samples of water ice and rescuing fellow explorers.
“The museum’s entry into the metaverse is part of our aspiration to reach 100 million people in museums, classrooms, and online by 2030, breaking down barriers to engagement and creating greater equity in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education,” said the Museum of Science’s president Tim Ritchie.
Science museum enters the metaverse
“It’s not enough for the museum to be the most popular destination for families in New England and to share hands-on curricula with educators and millions of students around the world – we also want to leap into the metaverse to meet students where they are with top-quality STEM content.”
Mission: Mars also includes instructional materials and additional support for teachers to use it as part of engineering and science education in classrooms.
“The in-game mechanics and environmental design in Mission: Mars are all based on true scientific principles, powered by actual data collected by NASA on Mars,” said Dan White, CEO of Filament Games, an educational game development studio.
“The Roblox platform offers developers like Filament the opportunity to deliver the kind of compelling deeper learning contexts that students and educators alike crave when exploring hands-on topics such as the engineering design process,” added Rebecca Kantar, vice president of education at Roblox.
Yas Island is also entering the metaverse as part of a pioneering project to put Abu Dhabi in the virtual world. The destination is being recreated using several metaverse platforms, including Roblox.
Images: Museum of Science
