Earthlearningidea—two million and counting: bringing Earth science ideas to teachers across the world

As one door closes, another one opens—sometimes. This is certainly true in the history of the development of the Earth science education website, http://www.earthlearningidea.com . In the expectation that funding would be available to help teachers in a range of developing countries during the UN's International Year of Planet Earth in 2008, a series of overseas workshops in Earth science was proposed. Undeterred by the probable absence of funding, Chris King, of Keele University, co‐opted Elizabeth Devon and Peter Kennett to initiate a web‐based series of Earth science activities, which could be freely accessed by anyone in the world. This was, and is, run on a purely voluntary basis. Up until 2014, the website was generously hosted, free of charge, by the Applied and Environmental Geophysics Research Group at Keele University, but the site now runs on a FreeBSD server situated in the London Telehouse and managed by Martin Devon. The minimal monthly costs of this are covered by a grant from the Geologists' Association's Curry Fund.