Shanghai promotes online science games to engage young people

A platform encouraging children to approach science through various games has been unveiled at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.

For their latest development of their Science Game Development and Collaboration Platform, the museum is cooperating with game developer Happy Elements to create an online game about the Giant Panda National Park, raising awareness about wildlife protection.

According to museum director Wang Xiaoming, science games are an important way for museums to promote science and educate children.

He referenced the American Museum of Natural History, and their development of an online platform called Ology, with 66 self-developed science games which can engage children in the practice of science. The result has been published in the leading scientific journal Science under the title "Bringing the Museum into the Classroom."

He also gave another example of the New York Hall of Science, which received a federal grant of over US$3.6 million for a program to increase middle school student engagement in computational thinking across the city's public schools.

Now the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum is continuing the trend. In April 2021, it held China's first science game conference. It has since developed 58 science games. Some of the latest include a board game about pandas, and a WeChat game about the crested ibis.

In 2018, games were listed as one of China's strategic emerging industries. Shanghai's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) on building innovation centers with global influence states that social institutes are encouraged to provide proper science games to children.