The UK Met Office ran an online game to highlight the best methods of communicating uncertainty in their online forecasts and to widen engagement in probabilistic weather forecasting. The game used a randomized design to test different methods of presenting uncertainty and to enable participants to experience being lucky or unlucky when the most likely scenario did not occur. Over 8000 people played the game; we found players made better decisions when provided with forecast uncertainty.

Game worlds in modern computer games, while they include very Earth-like landscapes, are ultimately fake. Since games can be used for learning, we wondered if people pick up wrong information from games. Using a survey we tested if people with a background in geoscience are better than people without such a background at distinguishing if game landscapes are realistic. We found that geoscientists are significantly better at this, but the difference is small and overall everyone is good at it.

Exploring a corpus of 320 888 news articles published by 32 worldwide newspapers in 2015, this paper shows the following: news covers a very small proportion of the total number of earthquakes occurring in a year; the duration of coverage is very short, which does not allow for proper coverage of long-term issues; and there is a typical framing of the news about earthquakes that introduces major biases in representation, impeding proper appropriation of the seismic risk by the public.

Research projects with exciting field components present unique public engagement opportunities. In this case study, we draw lessons and recipes from our educational programme with schools, coupled with a research project and aimed at showing students how science works. Co-creation with scientists gets the students enthusiastically engaged. The outcomes include students getting more interested in science and science careers and researchers getting experience in education and public engagement.

The Global Land and Marine Observations Database aims to produce a comprehensive land-based meteorological data archive and inventory. Data sources contained stations in incorrect locations; therefore, we developed the Geo-locate project, enlisting the help of undergraduate geography students. The project has resolved 1926 station issues so far. Due to the success of the Geo-locate project, we encourage other organizations to engage university students to help resolve similar data issues.

This paper presents a unique capacity-building event (the pressure cooker) which identified lessons for both organisers and participants about interdisciplinary working in geohazard risk communication. The paper highlights the importance of testing different approaches to build capacity across different disciplines for complex challenges, like risk communication. Examples are provided about the impact the event had on participants, organisers and supporters in both the short and long term.

Inspiring young people to take part in the discovery and delivery of science is of paramount importance not only for their well-being but also for their future human development. To address this need, an outreach model entitled OH-Kids was designed to empower pupils through the development of high-quality STEM learning experiences based on a research project. The model enhances students attitude towards science.