Happy International Geodiversity Day! Rockwatch is thrilled to join in with today’s celebrations to help to promote the wonders of geodiversity as seen through the eyes of children and young people.
UNESCO came up with the idea of geodiversity day to shine a spotlight on how critical geodiversity is to life on Planet Earth. It’s a day when the whole world can unite in one shared vision to educate people to better understand the relationships between geodiversity, biodiversity, and human diversity, so that we can tackle some of the biggest challenges we face like climate change, poverty, and hunger.
Rockwatch was founded with the aim of reaching the youngest generation to inspire them to learn more about geology and the wonders of the physical world around them, and hopefully encourage a future generation of geologists or Earth scientists. We do this by organising field trips and other events and by publishing a magazine with fascinating geology-based articles in, often written by members or former members.
Every summer, Rockwatch invites children and young people to enter its Rockstars Young Geologists’ Competition which motivates them to delve deeper into any aspect of geodiversity they wish and to send in their entries to be judged by a panel of geologists.
Children who enter relish the chance to share their projects and pieces with us and gain a tremendous amount of pride and enjoyment from taking part. Winners receive generous prizes, thanks to our competition sponsors, Anglo American Group Foundation. But most importantly, these children and young people have grown in knowledge and appreciation of the world around them, and often those early seeds of interest grow into lifelong love of geology as a hobby, through their studies or as a career.
Every year, our Rockstars never fail to impress us with their diligence and passion and this year is no exception. We always discover new insights from them which serves as a healthy reminder to never stop learning about geodiversity.
This year, our Rockstars have taught us that rocks play many vital roles as part of landscapes, processes, and places we live. They took us back in time to show that preserved in every fossil is a story about the Earth’s past that can help us to understand today and face the challenges of tomorrow. They showed us they recognise the impacts on our planet of geological processes such as volcanic eruptions and hurricanes and how we need to find solutions to help prevent or recover from disasters. They took us to see many geological wonders, which help to define community identities, contribute to the diversity of national and community identities, and underpin geotourism, bringing economic benefits to those places. They took us on field trips to show they are learning from the world’s natural laboratory and looking to change the world of tomorrow for the better.
We hope you will feel as inspired as we are with their efforts. To those who did not win this year, all your entries were fascinating and we hope you will enter the competition next year. Thank you to all our Rockstars who took part and congratulations to all our very worthy winners! To all our Rockstars of today and tomorrow – keep rocking and enjoy Geodiversity Day!
