Tag Archives: science communication

Find me at EGU26 – April 2026

This last month has seen me survive my first half-semester of full-time teaching. The job feels like it fits me like a glove though and I am definitely in my happy place in the classroom. Teaching weeks can feel relentless, delivering your material and making sure you have stuff prepared for future sessions, as well as keeping on top of the many admin tasks. My ADHD brain works best when it is this just-in-time mode of working but the sustained focus is exhausting. The Easter break therefore has been very welcome!

As well as time off, I have had a bit of space to prepare some teaching in advance, aware that I am away for two weeks in the next month and need to get ahead. I’ve also had a little bit of time to think about research, beginning conversations with collaborators about an exciting new project for the summer – more on that in a future post, I’m sure.

The European Geoscience Union General Assembly 2026

The EGU general assembly is a big date in my annual diary. If I’m honest, it’s the highlight of my year and something I really look forward to. I’ve been very fortunate to have been awarded internal funds from York St John University to attend this year, and I am set to have a busy week, as I explain below.

I will be attending virtually on Monday 4^th May, travelling Tuesday 5^th, and attending in person Wednesday 6^th to Friday 8^th, travelling back on Saturday 9^th May. If you’d like a catch-up/chat, please get in touch at c.skinner@yorksj.ac.uk and we can put something in the diary.

Most importantly, I am delivering two presentations, both on Friday 8^th May:

At EGU25, a bunch of us discussed starting a network to support neurodivergent geoscientists. We also ran a survey to capture the experiences of neurodivergent attendees at the conference. It led to the start of an online community and the submission of a report to the EDI committee. In this presentation, I will talk about this experience.

EGU26-5395 | Posters on site | HS2.2.7 | Adventures in Model Land: Using tabletop roleplay games to explore the abstract worlds of numerical models | Christopher Skinner, Erica Thompson, Jessica Enright, Rolf Hut, Sam Illingworth, and Elizabeth Lewis | Fri, 08 May, 16:15–18:00 (CEST) Hall A | A.1

If you have been reading my newsletter for a while, you will be familiar with Adventures in Model Land already (if not, read more here). Last year I shared a poster in the Games for Geoscience session and this year I’m presenting to modellers in one of my favourite sessions, led by Diana Spieler.

On Adventures in Model Land, I will be seeking interest in a project pairing modellers up with artists to conceive and create new model lands. If you’d be interested, please get in touch using c.skinner@yorksj.ac.uk

In addition, I’m involved in two other presentations that will sadly happen on days I’m not there or am travelling:

EGU26-13856 | ECS | Posters on site | GM3.3 | The role of sediment transport in amplifying flooding | Josh Wolstenholme, Christopher Skinner, Christopher Hackney, Matthew Perks, and Daniel Parsons | Mon, 04 May, 10:45–12:30 (CEST) Hall X3 | X3.13

This is some really exciting modelling work led by Josh that reveals how sediment transport during a single flood event can exacerbate flood risk. These are processes not represented in traditional hydrological and hydraulic models used for flood risk planning and forecasting, potentially meaning we are underestimating real flood risk.

EGU26-18054 | Orals | EOS1.1 | Communication within the UK flood hydrology community: bridging the gaps between science and practice | Linda Speight, Emma Ford, Anita Asadullah, Louise Slater, Sally Brown, Helen Harfoot, Owain Sheppard, Chris Skinner, Clare Waller, and Thomas Willis | Tue, 05 May, 10:00–10:10 (CEST) Room 0.15

This work, led by Linda, shares research conducted by the Science and Technical Advisory Group (STAG) of the UK Flood Hydrology Roadmap (UKFHR). The work sought expert views from the hydrological community on why the latest hydrological science and approaches were not leading to innovation in operational practice, and how we can improve this situation.

Geoscience Games Day 2026 @ EGU!

In addition to my presenting duties, I will also be leading activities for the annual Geoscience Games Day at EGU on Wednesday 6^th May. This will be the 9^th one in a row! You can get the full lowdown over on the Games for Geoscience webpages but below is a summary of the activities:

Activities kick off at 16:15 with our usual science sharing session, this year in interactive PICO format! This year we have 15 presentations covering both analog and digital games, each with a 2-minute lightning talk followed by an interactive display.

Geoscience Games Night @ EGU25

NET15 | Geoscience Games Night | Conveners: Christopher Skinner, Lisa Gallagher, Maria Elena Orduna Alegria^ECS, Rolf Hut, Elizabeth Lewis | Wed, 06 May, 18:00–19:30 (CEST) | Foyer D

We then immediately run off to the world-famous Geoscience Games Night. This event gets busier and busier each year, so make sure to come along and play the latest in geoscience gaming. Don’t forget to bring a game or two with you too!

As it will be the 10^th anniversary of Games for Geoscience next year, I’m exploring the possibility of marking it with an edited volume or a special issue. I will be seeking interest at the conference and feel free to express interest to me on c.skinner@yorksj.ac.uk

Teaching

Last year during my River Management module I used Vienna and the development of the ‘three Danubes’ as a case study. Whilst at EGU, I’m planning on using an early morning walk to capture footage with my 360 camera to make a simple virtual field trip for my students next semester. Some of that footage might even make it to a 360 flood tour on my GeoSkinner 360 YouTube channel!

A 360 flood tour of Prague on GeoSkinner360

See you in Vienna in May!

Chris

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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.

Le-tting-go – March 2026

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I’ve been in my new job for two months now and I am pleased to report that I am still loving every second of it. Working with students is full of highs and lows – the last few weeks has had its share of both – but is incredibly rewarding. Although I’ve had plenty of experience lecturing and leading workshops, I’ve not had much experience of the one-to-one tutorial work and I’ve been enjoying getting to grips with this part of the job.

Teaching

I am especially enjoying getting to use creative and game-based approaches for my Environmental Hazards module. This includes some of my favourite tools and also things I have worked on in the past but never really had the opportunity to use properly. Firstly, I wanted the students to appreciate how individuals had different vulnerabilities and resilience to hazards – we explored this in the context of children and young people using the Help Callum and Help Sali 360 immersive storytelling videos from the Flood Stories project. Five years on from finishing these, this was the first time I had got to use them!

Stop Disasters is absolute classic of the games for geoscience and disaster risk reduction genres. It is made for school kids really, but framed in the right way it can be useful in higher education too. I’ve already used the flood level in my River Management module to explore the ‘art of the possible’ in flood risk management, and a couple of weeks ago I used the tropical storm level in my Environmental Hazards module to allow students to try out counterfactual thinking. We also played Good Morning, a micro-RPG I wrote last year to explore how downward counterfactuals work. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked and a good feeling to effectively use a tool I had written.

Goodbyes

This month I also got to say a proper goodbye to my former Environment Agency colleagues from the Flood Hydrology Improvements Programme (FHIP). As a dispersed national team, we worked almost entirely remotely and only got together in-person two or three times a year. They chose to meet in York for their first meeting of 2026 so I could join them for dinner. This was such a nice gesture and I was reminded of just how much I miss them all. It still does not feel right that I won’t get to see them all regularly anymore…

NERC EMBRACE with LEGO!

Another highlight from the last month was the workshops for the NERC EMBRACE Enviro project. Led by the wonderful Dr Olalekan Adekola, this pilot project is part of the NERC Opening up the Environment call, and seeks to engage members of the refugee and migrant communities with environmental science and careers. Over three days, two groups undertook two days of free training. This included analysing water quality in the lab, GIS, and science communication.

I was involved in the project in the middle of last year, long before my current role was even advertised. I was included as an external consultant – through my side quest as GeoSkinner – to support the science communication training. These workshops then were also my last act as a freelancer and were based on my LEGO(R) Serious Play(R) inspired Play your Research workshops. I helped the participants find and visualise their science and personal stories of the workshop by building with the LEGO bricks.

These workshops never cease to amaze me. The start is often a mix of some being excited at the prospect of playing with LEGO bricks and others being cynical for the same reason. But, once we get going people are surprised by their own imagination and creativity and the insights that they self-reveal are truly incredible. I reflected on the workshop that not only did the participants discover their own stories, their insights highlighted the power of the workshop and the benefits they got from it. It would have been powerful evaluation data.

New Paper

I have a new paper out! For the last few years I have been part of an International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) working group on science communication, part of the organisation’s HELPING science decade. The paper reflects the collective work of the group – expertly led by Christina Orieschnig and Soham Adla – and provides a summary of science communication in hydrology and tips to make sure it is effective.

Honestly, many have put a lot more working into this than I have but I’m proud to have contributed and to have my name attached. You can read the open access paper in Hydrological Sciences Journal.

Games for Geoscience

In the last few weeks the organising committee of the European Geoscience Union General Assembly has been working hard wrangling nearly 20,000 abstracts into a conference programme. With 14 abstracts, Games for Geoscience fell just below the threshold for a full science session (talks + posters) so instead this year the session will be PICOs.

I’m a little disappointed as the session usually has a good involvement with those attending virtually, and I have found the poster and PICO sessions far less accessible for virtual presenters and attendees than talks. But, I’m still looking forward to another awesome session and of course, the world famous Geoscience Games Night will be back too!

Next month’s newsletter will be devoted to EGU, including the full programme for the Games for Geoscience session and sharing the contributions I’ll be making at the conference – my first as a academic since before the Covid lockdowns!

See you in April!

Chris

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Transitions – February 2026

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I’ve just finished presenting a webinar for the UNRISK CDT about my work with games. It was months ago when James McKay and Erica Thompson from the CDT invited me to talk, before I had even applied for my current job. So, figuring out what I was going to say was tough. Back then, I was freelance, GeoSkinner, just messing around with games because it interested me and kept me creative. Now, as an academic again, I have an opportunity to be more serious and focussed about it and do some ‘proper’ research. My presentation sat at this transition point – a collection of ideas waiting to be forged into something meaningful.

Transition, then, has been the theme of my last month, my first as a Lecturer of Geography at York St John University. Obviously, there’s been the usual transition to a new workplace: the obligatory fire safety and slips, trips, and falls training; navigating a different travel booking system; and, learning the unwritten rules of how the new place works. For example, where my old team predominantly communicated using chat in MS Teams, my new team rarely uses it and favours emails. It sounds small, but it’s been an adjustment.

But it hasn’t just been a change of job and employer, it has been a shift in sector and career. What I did not expect was how strong a sense of freedom I would feel, it has taken me by surprise. There were understandable and reasonable limits to what I could do within my previous role, which was why I maintained my interests independently. I hadn’t appreciated how difficult it was to partition my professional life in this way, until I no longer had to. If I want to explore the pedagogical value of building with LEGO bricks it is now valuable professional practice and a potential research avenue that I am encouraged to pursue, rather than something I will try and fit around work and life. Honestly, it feels like I’ve been holding my breath and now I can breathe out finally.

Another big transition has been the change in pace of the work. My old role was strategic and deadlines were defined by quarters and financial years a distance away. As an ADHDer, my concept of time is now and not-now, so strategic planning has never been my strength. I often describe my brain as like an old petrol-powered lawnmower where you keep pulling the cord to get it going but it just keeps sputtering out. It was hard to get going and without the excellent project managers I worked alongside I would have struggled big time. But, in my new role, I’ve had no option but to hit the ground running – there’s marking and moderation to do, students applying for jobs to help, and the start of teaching is looming large. I’m actually finding this change of pace refreshing, more suited to my neurotype and, as well as enjoying this, I’m finding it easy to make use of those liminal times between tasks and meetings.

This then brings me back to that transition at the start of this newsletter. This transition, shaping my interests into a cohesive programme of research, is one I am yet to crack but is something I really want to get right. Whilst I am immensely proud of what I achieved as a Research Fellow at the Energy and Environment Institute, I have always felt regret at not achieving what I would have like to and what I know I am capable of. Looking back, I can see how I was constantly battling the ADHD in my mind, even though I didn’t realise it then. This time around, the expectations and the culture are different and, crucially, I know myself much, much better.

Game-Based Approaches in Geoscience (Game-BAG)

My first project I plan to develop is Game-BAG (I love a dodgy acronym). It will bring together several strands of my work into one place with common objectives. This includes Games for Geoscience, Adventures in Model Land, and my work with the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methodology. Planning is still work in progress but I’d particularly like to look at:

How game-based approaches are used to support education and training in geosciences (using EGU’s broad definition)
How game-based approaches can support the understanding and development of numerical models with modellers and technical experts
How game-based approaches can build model literacy in non-modellers, particularly decision-makers

Games for Geoscience

Games for Geoscience will be back for EGU 26. We got 15 brilliant abstracts and we’re still waiting to hear what format the session will be. More news about the session and the Geoscience Games Night will be available soon – make sure you check the website for updates. As with last year, I also hope to bring blogs and game profiles from those featured in the session.

GeoSkinner YouTube

Testament to how long it has been since I have provided a proper update, there is a ‘new’ video on the GeoSkinner YouTube channel that is already 5 months old… I played Terra Firma, an indie videogame that is essentially a playable landscape evolution model, the type of geomorphology model that much of my previous research made use of. Actually, it’s been so long the Dev has released Terra Firma 2 since…

I have no plans for any new videos to come soon but some ideas I’d like to explore. Going forward, my videos will probably be more closer related to my research especially Game-BAG – yet more transitions to come!

Project Prospero

I’ve been on a hobby spree the last couple of months and progressed my Warhammer project, themed on the Burning of Prospero. Too much to update here, but visit my hobby site to see the latest.

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Inspiring Interactions – Simon Clark

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Simon Clark is one of the most successful science communicators on YouTube. His channel, @SimonClark, currently has over 644,000 subscribers and his videos regularly amass hundreds of thousands of views. Although his channel is now focussed on promoting climate literacy it started 15 years ago as a vlog about his experiences as a state-educated student attending University of Oxford. This was significant because Oxford and Cambridge have traditionally been a space for privately-educated students – even today where less than 7% of students are privately educated they make up 30% of student intake at these universities, and historically this has led to a disproportionate under-representation of state-educated citizens in important roles (e.g., 65% of senior judges are privately-educated). It’s clear that his representation of the state-educated voice in that arena resonated with many people.

What I have found inspiring about Simon is how he has managed re-invent and evolve his channel throughout his career. From that original vlog, through his time doing a PhD at the University of Exeter, to going full-time afterwards, and now focussing on climate literacy. He has adapted and grown with his audience whilst remaining true to himself and the content he wants to make and feels is important. Recently, he has been open about struggling with YouTube’s algorithm and the threat that poses to his livelihood – this led to another re-invention and the incorporation of some physical models into his videos. Simon makes these by hand and they are beautiful and he has been rewarded with millions of views. It’s imagination, it’s craft, and it’s realness – all the things I think people yearn for.

I’m also inspired by Simon as he is living my dream in many ways. He gets to be creative, share knowledge, and inspire people to learn every single day. He has already achieved my ambition and written a book (with an excellent audiobook version read by Simon himself). Like me, he’s a big gaming and Warhammer fan and successfully brings these into his work (seriously, check out his awesome Hawaiian Orks). When I put together videos for my YouTube channel, I looked to Simon’s for ideas – how can I put it together, how do I tell the story, how can I film this? Simon also co-hosted a brilliant podcast How to Make a Science Video with Sophie Ward where they chatted to other science creators. It is so jammed with useful insights and ideas that I highly recommend you listen if you want to make science videos.

I asked Simon some questions about imagination and his work.

Why is imagination important to the work you do?

Imagination is vital to me for two reasons. Firstly, YouTube is such a crowded marketplace that anyone not being imaginative in how they present their work risks being crowded by any number of content creators making things by the book. By making things that no one has ever made before, you stand out in a competitive niche. But more than that, and this is the second reason, it’s deeply fulfilling. I would never dream of referring to myself as an artist, but I think there is a part of me that clamours to express itself via art. Making videos is of course itself an art form, but trying to innovate and ask “what could I do here that’s unique” provides another level of artistic fulfilment.

How do you keep your imagination sharp?

I firmly believe that in order to create art you must consume art, and so I’m almost constantly hunting for new stimuli in the form of videos, podcasts, ideas, films, games, but particularly music. I’m one of those people who absolutely rinses their Spotify subscription. I think being exposed to new ideas in one medium – such as music – makes you question preconceptions and biases you have in other media forms. And doing that is the first step to creating something innovative. Which is the other key component – in order to create… you need to create! So I try to do something creative, whether that’s painting or singing or writing or videomaking, every day.

What are you currently working on that you would like to shout about?

I’m in the very early stages of a mammoth video that’s a sequel of sorts to my tiny Earth video. I can’t say much, but it’s going to be big in scale and involve very small models. And trains.

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Inspiring Interactions – Lucia Perez-Diaz

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Lucia Perez-Diaz is just simply multi-talented. You could describe her a Geoscientist. She has a PhD from Royal Holloway, has worked as a researcher, has an impressive scientific publication record and practices geoscience professionally. As an Earth Scientist, of the hard rock geology variety, Lucia specialises in understanding the process of plate tectonics, describing herself as a detective using clues and computer models to recreate the way the earth may have been in the long, distant past.

You could describe her as an artist, or even a science-artist. She is also a freelance illustrator and an incredible artist. She has a very distinctive and aesthetically pleasing style that she describes a “fun and whimsical”. Much of what she creates is made using papercut methods and even when her art is digital, whether that’s the beautiful illustrations for the game QUARTETnary or in her book How the Earth Works, it still carries that hand-crafted style. This is why her work appeals so much, it has a tactile quality, it looks like you could pick it up and run your fingers along the edges of each cut piece of paper – like a vinyl record, it is a medium that provides a direct connection between the audience and the creator.

Finally, you could also describe her as a writer and storyteller. She called herself a detective and in How the Earth Works she uses this as a device to draw the reader through the book. The book itself is aimed at children to inspire them with geoscience and learn about plate tectonics, but really it is her own story of investigating the deep past of the planet that she is inviting the reader to join her in. Recently, she has also turned her talents to science-journalism, joining the press team for the European Geoscience Union General Assembly, covering the themes of the conference including gender, AI, and ethics.

I asked Lucia a few questions about imagination and what it means to her work:

Why is imagination important to the work you do?

Much of what we do as Earth Scientists relies on imagination. We imagine processes we can’t directly see, and times we can’t travel to. Science, to me, is built on curiosity—and curiosity naturally leads us to create new ideas, to imagine. For me, science, imagination, and creativity are deeply intertwined.

As an artist, imagination plays the obvious role in the creative process, but also in figuring out how to communicate science in ways that resonate with people who may have different perspectives, interests, or relationships with it. It’s about finding new entry points into scientific ideas.

How do you keep your imagination sharp?

One thing I started doing a few years ago that really helps keep me creatively fit is taking on projects that are outside my comfort zone. Last year, for example, I created a series of illustrations featuring eight different characters based on various lipids.

“Take cholesterol and design a character inspired by its molecular structure and characteristics” — it doesn’t get much weirder than that! At times I regretted agreeing to it, but it pushed me to think in new ways, and I was really happy with the final result.

Some of these experiments never make it to social media — sometimes because I’m not allowed to share them, other times because they don’t fit my usual content — but they absolutely help keep my imagination active.

What are you currently working on that you would like to shout about?

Following my first book How the Earth Works, I’ve been developing ideas for new books — which I can’t talk about just yet, but I’m very excited about!

Alongside that, throughout 2024 and 2025, I’ve been working on a print series called Adventures in Time. It explores what it might be like to travel through different geologic periods. Right now, I’m working on a piece inviting travellers to the Paleogene—where you can climb Mount Everest while it’s still easy! (The Himalayas only began forming around 50 million years ago, so Earth’s tallest mountain was just a hill back then.)

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