Over the past two years, museums around the world have explored and expanded into the Web3 space to boost footfall, diversify revenue streams, and offer new experiences. Yet while high-profile art museums attract much of the press around cultural Web3 extensions, we’re seeing a rising number of science museums go the same route to attract new audiences, build educational programs, and stand out from the pack.
One recent example of this is a new experience recently launched by The Museum of Science, Boston, with its Roblox-based immersive online education offering “Mission: Mars.” With more than 200 million monthly active users, Roblox is a popular online game platform and game creation system that gives users the ability to program their own games or play games or take part in immersive 3D experiences created by others.
In the case of “Mission: Mars,” The Museum of Science, Boston partnered with Filament Games to challenge participants to engage in the Engineering Design Process, building and tweaking vehicles designed to explore Mars and take part in exploratory missions with other players.
According to eSchool News, “Mission: Mars” is notable as it “enables individuals to step into a Mars survival suit, drive a high-tech Mars Rover, help their team in specific level-based missions to discover past evidence of water, collect samples of water ice, and rescue fellow explorers from certain doom. Participants also design and create vehicles to help them in their missions and will be able to earn experience points and rewards along the way.”
The Museum of Science is the first recipient of the Roblox Community Fund (RCF) that has rolled out an interactive offering like “Mission: Mars” since the fund was launched in November 2021. The $10 million RCF has, over the past 15 months, offered grants to educational organizations to incorporate Roblox into their interactive educational programs and curricula.