GoldieBlox and Discovery Education recently announced a new education initiative – Maker High. Maker High offers an immersive learning experience hosted on Roblox for educators to teach chemistry in middle and high school classrooms. It’s a new Roblox experience from the award-winning GoldieBlox team that uses the power of gamified learning to immerse learners in chemistry.
Maker High features Chem Lab Escape, a virtual escape room in a chemistry lab where high school students explore core chemistry concepts through dynamic gameplay. Chem Lab Escape empowers students to solve challenges such as combining elements and solutions to create chemical reactions and adding and removing heat energy to water to navigate an obstacle course. Accompanying student-driven activities and hands-on investigations are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and facilitate instruction around particle motion and the types of chemical reactions. Resources from Maker High, including the Chem Lab Escape, pair digital media with easy-to-follow instructions and are simple to incorporate into any lesson plan and learning environment.
GoldieBlox is a Roblox Community Fund (RCF) grantee. RCF, established in 2021, provides grants to educational organisations and developers to enable the creation of innovative learning experiences and curricula that leverage the platform in immersive and compelling ways.
Speaking on the collaboration, Debbie Sterling, Founder & CEO of GoldieBlox, said:
GoldieBlox has over a decade’s worth of experience making STEM fun and inclusive, especially for girls traditionally excluded from STEM fields. Maker High empowers students to understand and master STEM concepts. Maker High makes learning fun by meeting students where they already are on Roblox. Every detail of these resources is thoughtfully designed to strike that hard-to-reach balance of entertainment and academic rigour, all while delivering the learning content in an accessible, inclusive way. We hope teachers and students come back to play again and again to build upon their STEM skills.
GoldieBlox, started by Stanford engineer Debbie Sterling, is known for “disrupting the pink aisle” and challenging gender stereotypes in children’s toys with the world’s first female engineer and coder characters. For the past decade, the platform has inspired millions of girls worldwide through videos, animation, books, apps, curriculum, toys, and merchandise, tools that empower girls to build their confidence, dreams, and, ultimately, their futures.
Amy Nakamoto, General Manager of Social Impact of Discovery Education, commented:
Research shows that game-based learning proves an effective teaching tool in an educator’s toolbox. We’re proud to collaborate with GoldieBlox to bring chemistry to life through Maker High on Roblox.
Discovery Education helps educators deliver equitable learning experiences that engage all students and support higher academic achievement globally through its award-winning multimedia content, instructional supports, innovative classroom tools, and social impact programmes. The company serves approximately 4.5 million educators and 45 million students globally, and its resources are available in more than 100 countries and territories.
