Always fascinating to learn how non-geology people see the depths of the Earth...

One of the interactive displays for #GeoscienceAustralia #scicomm #geology #outreach asks the audience to draw a picture of what they think is underground. This can be a prelude to using the other displays, or afterwards to consolidate any learning.

The first observation is that only young children (<7 years) will automatically draw something at this display. Some older children will, but only those apparently confident in their drawing skills. Very few teenagers will draw, but always 'ironically'. Adults will never draw.

The three things that most participants are aware of and attempt to draw are:
* layers
* lava (usually very deep down)
* worms

The top left picture shows layers over lava (with some presumably hot worms).

The top right picture suggests the artist has a career ahead as a cartographer specialising in legends. Adding water is nice.

The lower left picture was a great one - the artist was vey keen to convey that there were 'lots of germs underground'. She isn't wrong.

The lower right artist was very keen on drawing 'lava crystals', but also threw in a solitary blue blob to remind us there may a bit of water there too.

It makes a great way to start (or wrap up) some #scicomm conversations.

2013, #GeoscienceAustralia conducted a study of ‘Critical commodities for a high-tech world’. It found Australia was rich in #antimony, #beryllium, #bismuth, #chromium, #cobalt, #copper, #graphite, #helium, #indium, #lithium, #manganese, #molybdenum, #nickel, #niobium, #platinum group elements, #rareearth elements, #tantalum, #thorium, #tin, #titanium, #tungsten and #zirconium.

Clinton Fernandes
(researcher at Future Operations Research Group at UNSW)

#nojobsonadeadplanet

It's #ScienceWeek Downunder and #GeoscienceAustralia has a #geoscience education display at the Woden Plaza for the weekend.

The displays explain how #EarthScientists use the properties of rocks like magnetism to map what is deep underground to better understand the #geology. Also a very cool display about the rocks in #Minecraft.

No idea how many of you are locals in beautiful #Canberra, but go have a look if you can!

How old is #Australia? Depends on what rock you are looking at...

As a bit of #STEM related tinkering, I have created a #bot that posts a random rock age and links to associated data from the #GeoscienceAustralia #geochronology #database each day: @RandomOzChron

(Thanks to @[email protected], https://cheapbotstootsweet.com/ and https://brightspiral.com/ for the tools - any mistakes are mine alone!)

A sneak peek of something I am very excited about... We reached an exciting milestone in a #geoscience #outreach project at #GeoscienceAustralia 🎉. We took delivery of the first of a series of interactive science exhibits. These portable 'tubs' are designed in collaboration with and built by the the amazing #Questacon team 🤩.

These exhibits will be the basis for future community engagement activities in regional and remote parts of #Australia to build conversations about geoscience and the role we play in understanding how the planet works 🌏.

This exhibit is currently being user tested with visiting school groups so we can see how people use it and what they take away from the experience (and nothing like a 9 year old to find ways to use the tools that you didn't expect... 😜)