Abstract
The spread of the 2020 Covid‐19 pandemic has had a major effect on the way that geologists carry out their work—and particularly those engaged in educating the next generation of geologists. There are a number of resources available, and some, focussed on fostering interest in budding geologists, are presented here.
In just a few months, the shape of the way we engage with geology has dramatically changed in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Since we can no longer visit rock exposures out of doors (Fig. 1), there are still a number of possibilities for geologists to inspire young people. Here are a few examples that show that, when coronavirus bites, geologists are keen, active and imaginative—nothing holds a good geologist down!
Figure 1.
Geological fieldwork—visits like this one to Batts Combe Quarry, Somerset, UK are currently suspended.
Earth Learning Idea
Earth Learning Idea (https://www.earthlearningidea.com/) publishes free Earth‐related teaching ideas, designed to be practical resources for teachers and teacher‐trainers all over the world (Fig. 2). ELI publishes new Earth Learning Ideas every 2 weeks. While the majority of these relate to face‐to‐face activities, requiring the use of some basic school laboratory equipment, others include abstract ideas. Each activity is designed to create pupil participation for maximum learning (Fig. 3), and now might be a good time to examine the resources for the time when classes resume—or for your home schooling endeavours. All activities are free to download and most require minimal cost and equipment. Best of all, they are fun!
Figure 2.
Small‐scale sedimentary processes, a page from Earth Learning Idea.
Figure 3.
Understanding flow—using a lunch box and some common liquids. a. Cold water. b. Hot water. c. Milk.
Visit the Earth Learning Idea website at: https://www.earthlearningidea.com/ and with your children or grandchildren (maybe deciding remotely) choose an activity and try it out. Many of the activities can be run using materials around the home and show fascinating results. You could also try asking some of the ELI ‘deep questions’ to see what responses you get from your family and friends. Just use the search engine to look through the 300+ ideas.
Exploring geoscience across the globe
Recently published online, and already reviewed in Geology Today (v.35, pp.166), Exploring Geoscience Across the Globe is a free‐to‐use textbook available as a downloadable pdf file, to be found at http://www.igeoscied.org/wp‐content/uploads/2019/12/Geotextbook_Dec_2019.pdf. Written on behalf of the International Geoscience Education Organization (IGEO), this textbook aims to assist teachers and educators in delivering high‐quality geoscience education. Exploring Geoscience Across the Globe provides access to a textbook that is comprehensive in scope for its target audience. It was produced to support teachers across the world in teaching the International Geoscience Syllabus—a recommendation of IGEO, covering ‘the geoscience topics that all 16‐year‐old students should know and understand, as recommended by the international geoscience education community’. The IGEO is an organization with clear aims: ‘to promote geoscience education internationally at all levels, to work for enhancement of the quality of geoscience education internationally and to encourage developments raising public awareness of geoscience, particularly amongst younger people’. (http://www.igeoscied.org/about‐the‐igeo/).
Podcast and TV geology
There are a huge number of TV programmes, podcasts and other media available with geological content that can form the basis of discussion and provide a ‘virtual fieldtrip’ for those with a hankering to get into the field. Geology teacher David Rowley at the Wells Cathedral School in the UK has put together a list of content for his students and anyone else who wants to follow up their geological interests (Fig. 4).
Figure 4.
List of podcasts, TV programmes and MOOCs of interest to geologists (David Rowley).
GeoWeek (on hold)
GeoWeek (https://www.bgs.ac.uk/geoweek/; Fig. 5) is an initiative, launched in 2018, that aims to promote ‘active geoscience’ via a ‘week’ of field trip activities taking place across the UK, introducing as many members of the public to geoscience as possible, mainly through outdoor activities such as urban, rural or coastal field trips.
Figure 5.
Geoweek—a week‐long engagement with geology, planned for 2020, now on hold for 2021.
Following a very successful GeoWeek last year, which had 76 planned events, and an estimated total of 2200 participants UK‐wide, plans were well in hand for this year's event. However, because of the coronavirus pandemic, this has meant that the event for 2020 has now been put ‘on hold’. Nevertheless, voluntary GeoWeek leaders and organizers can still get involved in preparation for when things improve, turning GeoWeek 2020 into an opportunity, by using some of the ideas below, or you could develop bigger and better ideas of your own. Try these suggestions:
If you were planning a field visit or building stone walk (Figs 6 and 7), write up your walk as a self‐guided walk and circulate it locally.
If you were planning an ‘Ask the geologist’ event (where people would bring their finds to be identified and ‘brought to life’ by experts), then you might: ask people to send in pictures of their finds, taken by mobile phone to the panel during the same time slot or during the whole of GeoWeek, to be identified and commented on; set up a dedicated time‐slot for folk to show a rock/fossil/mineral specimen to an online expert, via some kind of video‐capable online system (Zoom, Skype, etc.). (The video quality will probably not be good enough to allow the expert to observe much, BUT they can ask questions that encourage the participant to observe and describe their sample, thereby fostering valuable geological skills and perhaps igniting a spark of curiosity); or, set up an online photo quiz—and then circulate the answers a little later.
If you were planning a ‘Stone your home’ activity, where experts visit stone‐built homes in the local area, by arrangement with the owners, and explain what the stones mean and ‘bring them to life’, before giving the owners a certificate and back up information on their own building stones, you could still offer this service, but plan to visit when the pandemic has calmed down.
And finally, if you were planning a GeoWeek lecture, you could prepare a PowerPoint of the lecture and circulate it anyway.
Figure 6.
Building stone walks are a popular way of engaging people in geology. With limited opportunity to examine stones like this ‘in the wild’, plan ahead to a time when there will be more opportunity to get out and about.
Figure 7.
Keeping 2 m apart restricts such interaction at present, but paving stones are a valuable source of geological information.
If you were planning any or none of these things, begin to think how you might contribute to GeoWeek in May 2021. Our hope is that several events will be run during each GeoWeek by each contributing organization. For more information about GeoWeek, visit the website at: https://www.bgs.ac.uk/geoweek/ or contact the organizers. We are all hoping for a bumper GeoWeek 2021.
Other initiatives
There are a number of other useful educational initiatives for those interested in geoscience:
Try the Emerald Ant web pack on Earth science called the ‘Iguanodon Restaurant Programme’ at: https://emeraldant.com/schools/. The website explains: ‘Emerald Ant engages schools and communities in their local history and heritage through hands‐on, creative projects and large‐scale art. We aim to deliver projects with real ‘WOW’ factor for children and young people …’.
Visit the WASP (Woodside Australian Science Project) website at: https://www.wasp.edu.au/ for a wide range of activities and videos on all sorts of geoscience topics for children and adults.
Geology for home schooling
Julie Harrald provides a tool that can be used for including Earth science in home schooling. The Deep Time project has developed smartphone apps that take the user on geological voyages of discovery in deep time. There are two apps (https://deeptime.voyage/apps‐org/): ‘Voyager’ and ‘GeoExplore’. While ‘GeoExplore’ is designed for data collection on field trips, ‘Voyager’ is really well‐illustrated and can be used at home on the interactive app, or the voyages can be viewed online on the website (https://deeptime.voyage/, although it is not interactive). The website also has extras though—drone filming, sounds, picture galleries, and so on.
Voyager is aimed at 10–15‐year‐olds and tourists or adults with no geological background. Younger children can enjoy the illustrations and could understand the content with adult help. A map shows a route around an area of countryside, illustrated information screens explain what is seen, reconstructions of past environments, including sounds, bring the past to life, and a game of survival in deep time can be played by answering questions.
The app is GPS located—when you download it, it knows where you are and normally only allows the questions to be answered if you are on location. To disable this feature, so that you can look at everything and answer the questions at home, select the Help tab at the bottom of the app screen, scroll to the end to find purple padlock. Touch this and it will ask for a four‐digit code—this is always today's date, consisting of day and month, for example 2803 for 28 March. You can now return to the other tabs and play the game. Also—be sure to touch the clock at the top of the screen—it not only tells you the time, but will take you back in time—you can scroll through the entire geological time frame and see what happened when.
GeoExplore is aimed at A‐level students and others with some geological background. It provides a tool for gathering geological data in the field on a field trip of your own, and some optional guided field trips.
Websites
Deeptime Voyage (https://deeptime.voyage).
Earth Learning Idea (https://www.earthlearningidea.com/).
Emerald Ant web pack on Earth science (https://emeraldant.com/schools/).
Exploring Geoscience Across the Globe downloadable pdf file, to be found at http://www.igeoscied.org/wp‐content/uploads/2019/12/Geotextbook_Dec_2019.pdf.
International Geoscience Education Organization (IGEO) (http://www.igeoscied.org/about‐the‐igeo/).
GeoWeek (https://www.bgs.ac.uk/geoweek/).
WASP (https://www.wasp.edu.au/).