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Virtual fieldtrips have become a crucial resource during the COVID-19 pandemic within geoscience education. This study presents a critical evaluation of their use, using real world examples delivered to a masters level class at the University of Aberdeen. Our work highlights several key findings which can be used to help plan virtual field trips, and how associated disadvantages of their use can be mitigated through a blend of physical and virtual fieldtrips.

Video games are the largest sector of the entertainment industry and often contain ancient animals (e.g. dinosaurs) and/or fossils. This may be the first or only exposure gamers have to palaeontology and it provides a useful starting point for science outreach. However, video games are not typically designed to be educational. We investigate the use of palaeontology in video games and highlight common tropes that may mislead the public and skew their perception of palaeontological science.

In this paper we discuss the instrumental role of the press in informing and educating on the subject of climate science and climate change. We illustrate with an example of a dissemination format called Weather Stories, published daily in one of the most read newspapers in Spain. The particularities of this journalistic format are described with a practical example on how a relatively complex physical concept: the jet stream.

In this manifesto, we offer six points of reflection that higher education geoscience educators can act upon to recognize and unlearn their biases and diversify the geosciences in higher education, complementing current calls for institutional and organizational change. This serves as a starting point to gather momentum to establish community-built opportunities for implementing and strengthening diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice holistically in geoscience education.

Participants answered four questions concerning their experience writing a haiku based on a geoscience extract. Data were categorised as being part of the ‘Task Process’ or ‘Task Meaning’. The themes involved in the ‘Task Process’ were ‘Identification of significant information’, ‘Distillation of information’, and ‘Metamorphosis of text’, while the themes related to ‘Task Meaning’ were made up of ‘Enjoyable’, ‘Challenging (which has subthemes ‘Frustrating’ and ‘Restricted’), and ‘Valuable’.

Climate change is increasing the risk of weather hazards (i.e. Storms and Heatwaves). Using open science methods it is shown that there is a bias in weather hazard reporting. Storms have had a large number of articles in the last five years. But, wildfires have a large number of articles per individual occurrence. Science and media collaborations could address the bias and improve reporting.

This paper reports on research insights from a collaboration between UK climate scientists and artist researchers to advocate for a more creative and emotionally attentive approach to climate science engagement and advocacy. The paper highlights innovative ways in which climate change communication can be re-imagined through different art forms to enable complex concepts to become knowable, accessible and engaging to wider publics.

The aim of this paper is to communicate results of our survey giving a first overview and reflects how teaching of hydrology and water related sciences changed due to COVID-19. Next to many negative aspects for teachers and students, also a spirit of optimism, time of change and community initiatives could be noticed. COVID-19 made it possible to explore novel teaching methods which useful to modernize education and make practical teaching formats accessible for all hydrology and water students.

How do kids imagine the onset and outcome of a volcanic eruption? A workshop proposed to the schools tries to answer this question by collecting stories written and drawn by kids and youngsters (age 6–13). The eruption they have in mind is an excellent starting point to build classroom conversations about volcanic risk and its mitigation. At the same time, the workshop provided us valuable hints to improve educational materials and lesson plans accounting for kids’ knowledge and beliefs

Virtual field trips have been used to engage students unable to go in the field with geological field work. Here we investigate the perceptions of staff and students before and after a virtual field trip; including investigating the success of mitigation measures designed to decrease barriers to engagement and inclusion. We conclude that negative and positive perceptions exist and that effective mitigations can be used to improve the student experience.

Geology in not apolitical. Here we explore what Decolonising the Curriculum means, both in a wider sense, but specifically for the discipline of geology. We outline some of geologies colnial past, and point to its colonial present, in the hope that we can do better in the future. We explain some of the discipline-specific jargon associated with decol. Some suggestions are included to help geology teams begin their Decolonising the Curriculum journey.