One of the most pressing needs in geoscience education is associated with developing the 21^st Century workforce for the mineral industries. This not only requires geologists, but also metallurgists, engineers, hydrologists, environmental scientists, lawyers, politicians, and lawmakers, amongst many others. There is rare bipartisan agreement on the need for increased mining and processing within the U.S., to ensure a secure supply of critical minerals, vital for supporting our economy and within defence purposes. The challenge with this is that the U.S. public typically has a negative perception of the mineral industries, which is understandable due to past human rights abuses and environmental damage. The industries are however aware of their impacts and as a whole are moving towards more responsible and sustainable practices. Adapting curricula to make classes fun, while reflecting the needs for critical minerals and trained Earth Scientists has gone a long way towards improving student’s perceptions and recruitment of majors.

Analogies are very powerful ways of conveying STEM concepts and are especially useful for connecting with Gen Z students who have very short attention spans. Core concepts can be turned into analogies, using memes, with the only limit being the instructor’s imagination. Cats are the ultimate meme and fortunately for us can represent concepts from cat-ion substitution to rheology. This helps makes complex topics fun and develops connections between students as well as between students and the instructor, resulting in improved learning. 96% of students reported greater enjoyment of class with 77-93% reporting improved learning for specific topics. With this more relaxed learning environment, students are more open to re-evaluating their personal views. Thus, addressing individual and societal needs for critical minerals, while reflecting on past atrocities associated with mining and the current industrial policies, changed student’s feeling to be more positive about domestic mineral industries (7% neutral, 67% somewhat positive, 20% strongly positive). Currently, several students are working towards careers in or related to the minerals industries. Attracting and keeping a diverse and broad range of students within the realm of geosciences is vital for our future and these successes could be applied to any geoscience education setting.