Merck has taken a new approach to science-based learning by creating a new world within the popular video game Minecraft.
Minecraft, the best-selling video game of all time with 238 million copies sold, is a so-called sandbox game, which gives players ultimate freedom to create within the infinite game. Users can roam different terrains and worlds in the game's distinctively blocky and pixelated style and choose from a variety of modes. Players can build houses and change landscapes through mining minerals with a pickaxe, explore worlds with other online users and even fight monsters.
In an attempt to "inspire the next generation of inventors," Merck has now created a world within Minecraft, titled "Periodic Odyssey," according to a Nov. 8 press release. In the world, players can search for elements in the periodic table. Once found, players can bring the elements back to a lab. As they increase their collection of elements, certain sections of the lab will unlock, giving the players access to special tools they will need to find rarer elements. The world can be downloaded here.
"It all adds up to make screen time into learning time, and to spark inspiration in budding scientists," Merck said in a statement on their website.