Big News: MOSI has a NEW name, NEW Digital Content Lab and NEW Center for STEAM Learning!

MOSI is stepping into the future by debuting NEW ways to learn and a NEW name that aligns more with their mission of being the area's leading center for science learning…dropping Industry and replacing it with Innovation, making your local science museum the Museum of Science & Innovation.

For those of you who are nostalgic, it's still called MOSI for short, and that was intentional.

“I mean, we are MOSI. That means something in Tampa,” said John Graydon Smith, MOSI President & CEO.

This isn't the first time MOSI has changed its name during its 64-year history in Tampa. It began as the Museum of Science and Natural History in 1962 before becoming the Museum of Science & Industry in 1982. While the industry worked for previous generations, it was time to focus on the future of learning.

“Our new name, Museum of Science & Innovation, captures the trajectory and energy of MOSI as we look to the future. We’re in a rapidly changing world, and Tampa Bay can count on MOSI to help make sense of what’s happening now and what’s coming next.”

So what does MOSI's new name mean for you?

MOSI is truly innovating with the times, and to prove it, they've just unveiled a new Digital Content Lab, thanks to a partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, where kids can design video games using top-of-the-line technology.

“They've got a 14th-gen Intel I-9 processors, 32 gigs of DDR5 RAM, and they also have RTX 5060 TI graphics cards. They're like really good– you could game in these in 4k and not stutter,” said José Cotayo, MOSI's education specialist.

“For content creation, this is what you want. These are great for editing, these are great for creating, these are great for gaming, these are great for whatever a kid throws at them.”

The power of 10K movie creation at MOSI's Digital Content Lab

Kids can even edit 10K movies that can be played in dome theaters, including MOSI's Saunders Digital Dome Theater & Planetarium, which happens to be the second-largest in the country.

This isn't like the videos they can edit at home and watch on their phones and computer screens. These will be videos they can literally immerse themselves in while sitting in the eight-story-tall, 360-degree dome theater.

“The kind of equipment that you need to make 10K resolution stuff is not the kind of stuff that you're going to have on your phone or on your home computer. That's kind of stuff that we need to have this dedicated content lab in order to make. And so that's what we have here, and it's going to be really awesome,” said MacKenna Wood, Director of the Saunders Planetarium at MOSI.

Wood tells us the DigiStar system, which MOSI's planetarium uses, has a simulation of the entire known universe, giving kids access and the power to explore outer space and create in ways they can't anywhere else.

“We start out with our night sky, that's what we most often see in the planetarium, but we can also simulate flying over the Earth with the International Space Station, or landing on the moon, or viewing the moons of Jupiter, or what the sky will look like on a distant exoplanet system,” Wood explained. “So what an alien civilization on those distant systems might see when they look out at the sky, or what the dinosaurs might have seen when they looked out at the sky. We can do all of this incredible stuff with our software here.”

NEW Center for STEAM Learning at MOSI

The museum also debuted its new Center for STEAM Learning, which includes three additional computer labs, a maker space with 3-D printers and laser cutters, a cooking lab, expanded classroom space, and more.

Kids will still get to do hands-on experiments and have fun creating slime like they used to. MOSI just unlocked even MORE innovative ways for them to learn.

“We’re here to inspire the thinkers of tomorrow with learning outside the classroom, and we’re here to be a crucial partner in making sure the jobs of the future will be coming to Tampa Bay,” said Graydon Smith.

The 30,000 square feet of new learning space allows MOSI to serve four times as many students in our community, and it's all housed in the old building where MOSI used to be. This move was also intentional.

“It's great to see, that's really when the rubber hits the road, right, is when this space is full of kids again, like it was  25 years ago. We've been working on it for years. We've been trying to raise the funds, but do it in a responsible way so that we don't get overextended.”

New Summer Camps at MOSI

All of this new technology and the STEAM labs also mean MOSI can expand its summer camp offerings and will also be offering camps for high school students in astrophysics, advanced coding, and video game design.

You can learn more about MOSI's Summer Camp programs here.

Innovating into the future at MOSI

Graydon Smith tells us this most recent expansion is part of the continued evolution of the Museum of Science & Innovation, adding the second-largest digital dome planetarium in the country last year and other new exhibits like the Flight Club Drone Zone and LIVECycles Butterfly Garden.

“These announcements will continue to roll out as we continue to reinvest in MOSI to make it as great as everybody wants it to be. So we've got some more announcements coming for late 2026 into 2027.  I mean, obviously, we've opened the new planetarium. That means the old planetarium is sitting there. That's a space that we're starting to reimagine now, and that announcement will be coming soon.”

We had to ask if that was the only hint we're going to get?

“That's the only hint you're going to get,” smiled Graydon Smith.

Funding for the projects announced comes from Bloomberg Philanthropies, private and corporate donors, revenue from MOSI admissions, the Florida Department of Education, and Hillsborough County.