Yo, museum professionals: exhibitions aimed at kids should not include interactive screens in galleries. You're undermining your mission!

Notably missing from discussions like these is a willingness to defend the interactive screen. The defense is simple: concepts that museums are tasked with teaching aren’t tangible anymore. 

Today’s students learn complex concepts that kids weren’t exposed to a generation ago. Even basic knowledge of science today requires a deep understanding of systems and ecosystems and how they interact at different scales. Interactive screens provide the conceptual tools, like rescaling and simulation, that help with that understanding.

In this episode, I describe how an interactive screen can teach global climate change in ways an object can’t.

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