The Science Museum’s new exhibition on survival adjusts its traditionally didactic approach to give the public a wider sense of sustainability and climate change, rather than simply doling out more advice. It also aims to show how ten year-olds are the ones best suited to saving our planet…

“The thing is, everyone’s getting so much information and advice about climate change, sometimes it can be a bit confusing and contradictory. We wanted to get away from that and give the public an idea of the bigger picture,” explains Steve Foulger who is part of the team that organised the exhibition.

The exhibition is split into five sections - Drinking, Eating, Enjoying, Moving and Building. Your guides as you move through the created world of 2050 are Eco, Tek, Dug and Buz – wisecracking kids that could charm both the children and their minders alike. Each of the characters has a different agenda and preferences, just like you and I.

Rather than bombard the audience with ideas of the ‘right’ thing to do, a sense of having to adapt and satisfy the requirements of many is stressed. For example, in the Moving section, you are invited to create a transport vehicle for the future. Easy, I thought. OK, it should be able to carry loads of people, run on something suitably futuristic like hydrogen fuel cells, and be made out of metal. “Eco friendly, clean energy source, great job!” chirps Eco and I smile smugly to myself.

Right before Tek shoots me down again: “But what if I want to travel somewhere different to where everyone else wants to go? Or what if when I want to travel isn’t covered by the public timetable? I’m not so sure…” This is harder than I thought, and the questions don't get any easier.

The exhibition has also been adapted as a teaching aid, which contains a section called War Over Water, which attempts to discuss solutions to the very possible dilemma of countries going to war over diminishing natural resources. Sounds a bit heavy. Isn’t this meant for kids? Stephen disagrees. “I think many 10 to 14 year olds love to engage in weighty issues. After all it is their future. What they have to understand is that no single idea will work 100 percent. It’s a question of what we personally value – what we want to keep. That’s the question that will really shape the future.”

Another highlight of the exhibition is the Building section where you are asked to construct your own city based upon your personal preferences, such as power sources, living arrangements and pass-times - if you feel you need them (can you believe some people neglected ‘fun’ in their city?). Your design is finally added to a huge e-boy style map at the end of the exhibition comprised of everyone’s uniquely designed city. Your own constructed metropolis looks like a tiny piece of the puzzle relative to the huge map and visually it works really well, portraying the sheer number of opinions that must be taken into consideration when deciding the future of our planet. “Your world adds to others,” explains Stephen. “This is coexistence at its most basic.”

Co-existence is perhaps the buzzword of the entire exhibition: co-existence with nature, as well as with ourselves. Since when did science get so entertainingly relevant? As The Science Museum continues to set the bar for compelling, interactive science, critics of the levels of real education modern youngsters receive fall silent for a rare moment, and rightly so. I wish they had this kind of thing when I was a kid.

The Science of Survival exhibition is on now at The Science Museum and runs until 2 November 2008 before embarking on a global tour.