I love a computer game called Timberborn. It’s a city builder game where you manage a colony of anthropomorphised beavers as they build a colony in the ruins of humanity, presumably now extinct. It is gentle, lovely, has a great sense of humour, and is highly addictive.
This is probably why Amy chose the board game 13 Beavers by Format Games as a silly Christmas gift for me. It’s a nice little game aimed at kids but we still had fun. The game has its own lore that tells of 13 legendary beavers who made it to beaver paradise*. These 13 beavers, each with its own theme such as a ninja, a robot, and a cowbeaver, form the artwork of the cards in the game – numbered 1 to 13, you move by correctly guessing whether the next card is higher or lower than the last.
The very simple game play is supplemented by some fun additions, including a magnetic fishing rod and fish that can either give you a bonus or set you back. There is also the opportunity to take a huge shortcut via the ‘tempting tunnel’ if you are able to correctly guess the exact value of the next card – something Amy did the first time we played, crossing the finishing line whilst I was still rooted to the start.
13 Beavers was lots of fun to play – it is funny, fast, and often frustrating (in a good way), whilst also being quite charming. It comes with a colourful board, a deck of attractive cards with the beaver artwork, a magnetic fishing rod and fish, and wooden beaver and dam playing counters. It’s recommended for ages 7+ and for 2-6 players. If you’re looking for a fun game for the family that doesn’t take too long or lead to arguments, this would fit the bill.
The reintroduction of beavers to UK landscapes is a hot topic these days. Beavers can bring great benefits as they create areas of wetland in wooded areas, which in turn increases biodiversity. Areas with beavers have greater resilience to forest fires and by allowing water to pond behind their dams they have potential to contribute to flood risk management too. 13 Beavers is not intended as an educational game but could make a fun hook for younger audiences as part of engagement work involving beaver reintroductions, facilitating conversations.
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Views expressed in this newsletter are mine and do not represent those of my employer. Content and links are provided for informational purposes and do not constitute endorsements. I am not responsible for the content of external sites, which may have changed since this newsletter was produced.
Welcome to August’s issue of Imagination Engines! Thank you for reading.
This summer I have been given a wonderful opportunity to develop a brand new module on River Management for York St John University’s Geography courses. I am so excited for this and have been loving designing the module and beginning to put the elements together. It’s hard work – fun hard work – and consequently I’ve had to reprioritise how I use my spare time.
It does not change my long-term goal of writing a book. In fact, I think the whole process is excellent practice and brings that goal closer. However, I need to temporarily change how I use this newsletter – I have been using it as a motivator to get me writing regularly and to explore different ideas, with 3-4 articles each month. I just don’t have capacity for this now but want to maintain a monthly publication schedule. Instead, I will focus on giving short updates on my main projects that are listed on the front page of my website.
Ongoing Research
I have a new paper out this month as a co-author. The work was led by my former supervisee, Josh Wolstenholme, and covers his PhD field work on the geomorphic change induced by the installation of leaky woody dams. It is a timely reminder that rivers move and change, especially if you stick stuff in them.
This is an open-source system to make game worlds based on the numerical models we use to learn about the world around us and predict the future. It is inspired by the world building used in tabletop roleplay games (such as Dungeons & Dragons) and just needs your imagination. You find out more and download the free guide here.
I’ve also started a Discord server for Adventure in Model Land as a place to discuss the system, share the game worlds you create, and to get help from others. Join it here.
FloodSkinner YouTube Channel
I had a new Short out in the last month. I came across some videos discussing rumours and leaks about the (long) upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, including some indications it might include a dynamic weather system. The rumours suggest that the weather system would interact with the terrain and influence the game – it rains, water pools, and roads flood and become inaccessible.
This is obviously very exciting for me so I put my thoughts into a Short. I was short on time and cutting all the clips together was quite laborious – unfortunately I didn’t get chance to do a full set up and did not light my greenscreen properly, so this is a bit messy (the kitten also moved the screen partway through filming and messed it up more…). Despite this, it did moderately well, with >1,100 views.
Games for Geoscience
After the annual General Assembly of the European Geoscience Union (EGU), summer is pretty quiet for Games for Geoscience. With the call for sessions for the 2026 General Assembly now out, in the coming month I’ll be pulling the team together and proposing what would be the 9th Games for Geoscience session.
I still have ambitions to make it more than just an EGU event, with year-round activity and a community. If you’re interested, you can join the Discord server.
LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®
In the last month I had the great pleasure of the supporting the Geography staff at York St John University with a LEGO SERIOUS PLAY inspired workshop. I was asked to support the department as they considered the best ways to support the future employability of their students and the creative approach of the workshop led to some valuable insights.
Making models with York St John’s Geography staff.
I’m looking forward to October this year where I will be returning to Southampton to once again deliver a Play you PhD workshop to the new cohort of Flood CDT students.
Project Prospero
Project Prospero is my hobby project where I am combining two pillars of geekdom into one nerdy-monster – a Warhammer-themed train set! The setting is the homeworld of the Thousand Sons Space Marine Legion, Prospero, as it is being pillaged by the Space Wolves Space Marine Legion. I am using models from the Legions Imperialis game and n-gauge tracks and trains. The centrepiece will be the giant pyramid of the Pyrae Cult, partially destroyed, using a Playmobil pyramid as its base.
This month I have been progressing the models and mocking up the layout to get some idea of scale. Because I don’t have space to leave out a layout, it will need to be fully modular. Check out a video I made from my mock up below:
About this Newsletter
I am Chris Skinner, a science communicator, STEM professional, and ADHDer. I am on a mission empowering people to unlock their full potential by transforming imagination into a powerful, actionable skill. This newsletter tracks my journey. I would like you to join me, so please subscribe. This newsletter is free and I do not offer a paid tier. If you would like to say thank you and/or help me in my mission please buy me a coffee using the link below.
Views expressed in this newsletter are mine and do not represent those of my employer. Content and links are provided for informational purposes and do not constitute endorsements. I am not responsible for the content of external sites, which may have changed since this newsletter was produced.
I have a whole bunch of new papers recently published to tell you about. I can’t take (all) the credit though as they have been led by amazing colleagues. Huge shout out especially to Josh Wolstenholme who has been working hard to publish various bits of his PhD research.
The first paper in this update led by Josh covers the modelling work performed for his PhD. He used an enhancement of CAESAR-Lisflood I wrote that allows users to represent leaky woody dames in the model, including those with flow gaps underneath. This provides an ideal tool to simulate the long-term changes natural flood management can cause in rivers. Josh’s research demonstrates the feasibility of this including verification against field observations.
This is the second paper Josh has produced from his PhD research, currently under review but you can access the pre-print. Whilst the paper above covers his modelling work, this one covers his fieldwork. This includes some enjoyable, yet very cold, trips to Dalby Forest, North Yorkshire, and the installation of trail cams. The field work observed changes to the river before and after natural flood management interventions had been undertaken.
I cannot tell you how happy I am to see this paper out! Five years ago this was going to my big paper, the one with significant findings rather than some niche model sensitivity tests. But every time I made progress something in the model popped up to frustrate me. After I left Hull in 2021 I let it sit. Last year, Josh picked it up again and brought fresh eyes and energy to it. He has done a brilliant job and made it his own.
The way we assess flood risk assumes rivers do not change shape during floods. In the majority of cases this is a reasonable assumption, however, the modelling work here shows that it is not always the case. Large amounts of sediment can be transported downstream and deposited, increasing flood inundations and volumes during later stages of the same event.
This paper, led by Katie Parsons, describes the work we did co-creating educational materials to support the Help Callum and Help Sali 360 videos. The videos came about when I worked with Alison Lloyd-Williams to use my immersive storytelling research to tell the real-life stories of flood-affected children that were shared through Alison’s research. Katie brought her education expertise to work with children, young people, and teachers to create resources to use the videos in the classroom.
I have been so privileged to get to collaborate with amazing and wonderful researchers like Josh and Katie. It’s also great to see them work together on the HedgeHunter’s project too. I had nothing to do with this but it is really cool work:
Back in 2020, just before the lockdown, Katie took part in my NERC-funded Earth Arcade Academy project with a project called INSECURE and it grew massively since (nothing to do with me!). Katie used creative methods to foster intergenerational engagement in communities at risk of coastal erosion. Even though my contribution was tiny and remote, it is such a great project I am going to pretend I had a small hand in it!:
Both Josh and Katie are now at Loughborough University and working on new projects together. I cannot wait to see what they will produce.
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I would not be in my line of work if I did not love being around water. I grew up, was raised, and lived most of my life on the banks of the Humber. Whether it was the open expanses of the bank and cliffs between Barton and South Ferriby, or the concrete defences around the Hull tidal barrier, I have marvelled and been inspired by the mighty tides and the big open skies of the Estuary. These were places I would sit, reflect, and let my imagination wonder.
Until recently, the only time I have lived away from the Humber was three years spent in Coventry. This city, a La Corbusien nightmare of concrete and ringroad, sits close to the point in the UK that is furthest away from any coast. Having buried its river, the Sherbourne, under the concrete the post-war planners loved so much, it is entirely cut off from any form of waterscape altogether. When I worked there, the ‘Jerde Masterplan’ had an ambition to install water features along the old route of the river but this a long way from the daylighting of buried rivers that has been successful elsewhere.
Needless to say, I did not enjoy my time in Coventry. I do not want to bash it, it has lots going for it, but I personally was not inspired or enriched by it. I did not find any spaces where I could sit and imagine. It was not the city for me. A large part of this, I think, was the lack of a waterscape and I felt homesick and longed to be under those open skies of the Humber once again the whole time.
It was not easy then to prepare myself for the move to York. It was move an hour’s drive inland, away from the estuary and the sea. I did not want to feel disconnected and homesick again. Thankfully, York was not devastated by well-intentioned yet misguided town planners whilst recovering from the Blitz and retains much of its Medieval charm (I once heard pre-war Coventry described as “York on steroids”). The River Ouse flows through its centre and I now live just a short walk away. Lunchtime and after-work meanders along its banks have become a near daily ritual, watching the boats, the rowers, and birds diving for fish and trying to guess where they’ll pop up again.
What I really love about the river is how dynamic it is and the liminal spaces at its edges. The river level can rise and drop quickly and since we moved here a few months ago it has spilled over its human-defined edges on handful of occasions. These are my favourite times and places. As I write, one of my favourite walks is diverted by the flood of the river. Not enough to cause harm, just minor nuisance, but it reminds me of its power and creates ambiguity over where belongs to us and where belongs to it.
It prompts my imagination. The water is much higher than usual and higher than I would visualise when it is ‘in bank’. The Ouse can flood to an extent that it causes real damage and misery and woe to those people unfortunate to be impacted by it. It is hard to visualise how it would look and the volume of water that would be needed for it to happen. You can see the evidence in the barriers on houses and businesses. You see it on flood markers (although I haven’t spotted any yet). And, when I see the water spilled over onto footpaths and the layer of fine silt left behind from the river when it was higher the day before, it sparks my mind to consider the hazards.
Here at the river edge, I find something similar to that I find on the banks of the Humber. It different, yet in a metaphorical, spiritual, and a very literal hydrological sense, they are connected. It is a place I can sit, reflect, and imagine. I am excited for the ideas I will have here.
Where are the spaces that spark your imagination?
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As I write this, it is currently Trustees Week in the UK – 6th to the 10th of November 2023. Trustees are at the heart of all charities. They are a special type of volunteer who provide leadership to the charity, making sure it fulfils its (legal) purpose and ensuring its volunteers and members have the support they need. This role is called governance.
To date, I have over five years of experience serving as a trustee for different charities. These roles are among the most rewarding things I have done in my career. They also provided me experiences of leadership, collaboration, and communication when I was an early-career researcher, and these have equipped me well for the challenges of my career. I have found new colleagues, new collaborations, and friends for life.
In 2015, I started volunteering as the Press Officer for the British Society for Geomorphology (BSG). This was a non-trustee position, helping the sub-committee for Outreach and Education by maintaining the Society’s social media channels and dealing with press enquiries. I was just two years out from my PhD at this point and it was good exposure to the world of professional societies, which are often small charities. I also had the opportunity to do some exciting things, like supporting a BSG exhibit at Cheltenham Science Festival with my Humber in a Box virtual reality experience.
The BSG Stand at Cheltenham 2015The original Humber in a Box set upThe ‘Hawaiian-Chris’ origin storySteve’s Delorian next door that played Power of Love on a loop for 10 hours for 6 days.
In 2018, I stood for election for Vice-Chair of the Outreach and Education sub-committee of the BSG, to succeed my friend Annie Ockelford (difficult shoes to fill). This was a trustee position and I was elected by the BSG’s membership for a three-year term. For those three years I ran the sub-committee alongside another trustee, firstly Louise Slater and followed by Hannah Williams. The Outreach and Education sub-committee existed to promote geomorphology, careers in it, and its value to society to the public and all levels of education. Some of the core tasks were:
Maintaining relationships with partner organisations, including the Royal Geographical Society and the Geographical Association.
Issuing outreach grant awards to members.
Judging the Marjorie Sweeting Award for best undergraduate dissertation in geomorphology.
Much of my time in this role was affected by the Covid pandemic and resultant lockdowns. But problems present opportunities. The lack of travel saved the Society a lot of money and it needed to spend it (the Charity Commission does not like you building up excessive reserves), so I designed and ran a grant award for digital outreach and educational tools. From my own experience, outreach and science communication grants are usually small (often < £1k) and this means you can not achieve a lot. I was keen to provide something with a bigger budget and see what could be achieved. This enabled us to fund some amazing projects and create some amazing tools for geomorphologists to use:
Steddfod Amgen 2021 Virtual Field trips (example).
The Digital Resource Series was rounded off with a knowledge sharing workshop, with expert contributions from Bethan Davies, Leah Forsythe, and Chloe Leach. These recorded presentations are still freely available to anyone and I look back with pride at the knowledge we were able to capture and share through this grant call. Check out the videos, they are inspiring.
It was also in this role that I developed a love for video editing. Steve Brace, the representative from the Royal Geographical Society supporting our sub-committee, suggested making some videos introducing some of the great debates in geomorphology. These were to act as provocations to be used by teachers, showing that there are open questions in geomorphology – things we don’t understand. With the support of the membership, I started these videos and made two episodes. I enjoyed this a lot and I see this as the moment that started my journey to the Floodology YouTube channel. The events of summer 2020 led to society engaging with more important debates and I did not feel it was appropriate to continue the series then. Sadly, I did not get chance to revisit it.
In September 2021, at the end of my three-year term, I left my role as Trustee of the BSG. I did so with great memories and am pleased with what we had achieved in that time. Earlier in 2021, I had also left academia to join the Environment Agency as a Senior Advisor in Hydrology. This marked a shift in my professional focus from the mud and rocks in rivers, to the water in (and especially out) of them. I successfully stood for election as a Trustee of the British Hydrological Society (BHS) and the week after my role ended at the BSG, my new role began at the BHS.
The BHS is organised differently to the BSG and instead of having a defined role I joined as one of a group of seven ‘ordinary members’. The ordinary members are all elected Trustees, serving for three years, and each contributing to several of the sub-committees. I have had roles in the Communications and Publications and the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion sub-committees.
At this time, my wife had been helping a group apply for charitable status and had been researching charity governance in detail. This proved useful as I took in a lot of this information in by osmosis and volunteered to perform a review of the BHS’ governance following guidance from the Charity Commission. If you wish to do a similar task, I recommend the following resources:
Following my review, I made several recommendations that are currently being implemented by the board of trustees. This includes changing the BHS’s charitable status, creating new policy documents and codes of conduct, and restructuring the Society’s governance and volunteering set up.
On this last point, my recommendations drew strongly on my experience at the BSG and what I saw that worked well there. I consider myself a disorganised person (undiagnosed ADHD) but I also strongly believe that organisation and structure is immensely freeing and can inspire creativity (there’s a reason the blank page is the hardest place to start writing from). By giving each ordinary member a defined role, leading just one sub-committee, and supported by new non-trustee volunteers, I hope we will be able to achieve more and be more reflexive to challenges and opportunities.
My trustee role in the BHS will be as Chair of the Communications and Publications sub-committee and our key tasks will be:
Producing the quarterly editions of Circulation magazine.
Maintaining and growing the BHS social media channels.
Maintaining the BHS website.
But our remit does not end there. With new volunteers joining there will be new voices, fresh energy, and innovative ideas to deliver more for the benefit of the charity, for hydrology as a discipline, and for the members.
In September 2024 my term at the BHS will end. I plan to take a break from volunteering after six years at that point to focus on new things – I’d like to put more time and energy into new ventures like the FloodSkinner brand and other projects currently in development. However, I know my trustee story is not over yet and I will be back volunteering in the future when the time is right.
Being a trustee is a serious role. You take on a legal role with responsibilities and even risks. But it is highly rewarding and places you in a position where you can affect real change. It is a unique opportunity to contribute based on your skills, experiences, and drive. It is a role where you can make it what you want – just supporting the charity tick over in its day-to-day function is extremely valuable and there are always opportunities to do more.
If you’d like to know more about being a trustee, especially if you’d like my role from September 2024, please do reach out.
GeoSkinner 