COVID-19 Science and Society Resources
Like nearly everyone around the globe, daily life at the Center for Science and Society has been uprooted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of us are looking for ways to help, options for teaching our children, and sometimes, an escape from it all. This list will be updated regularly. Please feel free to contact us with any additional resources.
- At-Home STEM Resources includes activities, experiments, and projects from the New York Hall of Science.
- Check out classroom resources from the National Science Teaching Association or National Science Foundation.
- Google Science Journal features experiments that can be completed at home and users are encouraged to submit their own ideas.
- Explore online programming from science centers and museums across the country. Curated by the Association of Science and Technology Centers.
- High school students can watch the video series Learning from Premodern Plagues from the Newberry Library.
- K-12 companies offering free subscriptions during COVID-19.
- Learn computer science via Code.org.
- For coding terms and definitions, visit this kid-friendly glossary from Smart Advocate. This resource was shared with the Center by the Lyndhurt STEM Club for Girls.
- National Geographic lists citizen science projects appropriate for students in third grade to twelfth grade.
- Safety First: Real Drug Education for Teens offers a remote education curriculum for high schools focused on harm reduction and scientific knowledge.
- Students can debate environmental issues through Science Matters: The Case of Plastics, a role-playing game from the Science History Institute.
- View the #coronavirussyllabusK12, a crowdsourced toolkit of books, teaching plans, and media for K-12 educators.
- Youth Remote Learning offers free online course for students.
- #CoronavirusSyllabus developed by president of the Social Science Research Council, Alondra Nelson, and crowdsourced from hundreds of instructors and scholars. Includes relevant articles and books, symposia, podcasts, film, and other resources for teaching this moment in higher education.
- COVID-19 Ethics: Health, Inequality, and Justice is a teaching, research, and practice resource from the Columbia University Department of Medical Humanities and Ethics.
- COVID-19 Forum from Somatosphere, a science, medicine, and anthropology journal. They are continuously updating their archive of essays, Dispatches from the pandemic.
- Crises of Democracy Curriculum, created in 2019, examines threats to democracy through the prism of cultural trauma. This teaching resource was developed by Columbia University in partnership with four global universities.
- Mini-lectures in science and anthropology developed by CSS Affiliated Faculty member Paige West and Zoë Wool.
- Pandemic Syllabus is a historical look at pandemics, public health, and infectious-disease control developed by David Barnes, Merlin Chowkwanyun and Center Interim Director Kavita Sivaramakrishnan.
- Virtual Campus is an online resource for Columbia and Barnard students with social games and ideas for the general public along with Columbia-specific health resources.
- For more ideas, search for #coronavirussyllabus or #teachthevirus on your social media platform of choice.
- Bash the Bug asks users to analyze plates of tuberculosis cells to help University of Oxford researchers fight antibiotic resistance.
- Join the COVID-19 Citizen Science Study led by the University of California, San Francisco.
- Play Foldit, a computer game from the University of Washington asking players to design proteins that can latch onto the novel coronavirus and block its entry into cells.
- Students from anywhere in the world ages 13-17 can join the New York Academy of Science’s 6-week challenge to develop technology-based solutions to slow the spread of COVID-19.
- Any Columbia student can apply to tutor children of families working at CUIMC online in a variety of K-12 subjects to assist in supporting at-home education
- Columbia COVID Tech Innovation Group from Columbia Engineering leads various projects to assist medical workers in creating and sterilizing equipment.
- Columbia Science Review, an undergraduate student group, has published a COVID-19 Public Hub, with interviews, Q&A forums, and other resources for getting involved.
- Donate to your local food bank (database from Feeding America).
- The Food Bank for New York City is also looking for volunteers.
- Find volunteer opportunities for data entry, software development, design, and biotech.
- Find other remote volunteer opportunities with VolunteerMatch.
- New Yorkers can find out how to give or receive help from City Hall.
- Guide and Design for Rapidly Produced Face Shields developed by Columbia University Libraries.
- NYC scientists, researchers, and managers can volunteer through Columbia Researchers Against COVID19.
- See how you can join the greater Columbia University community in the fight against COVID-19.
- Visit the Wearing is Caring website to read mask-wearing guides based on scientific evidence and research.
- The COVID-19 Student Service Corps offers Columbia students the opportunity to assist the community.
News organizations that have lowered their paywall for Covid-19 coverage include:
- The Atlantic
- Columbia University Press
- Duke University Press
- Financial Times
- Houston Chronicle
- LA Times
- New York Times
- New Yorker
- MIT Tech Review
- San Francisco Chronicle
- Science as Culture Journal
- Science Magazine
- Synapsis: A Health Humanities Journal
- Washington Post
Listen to Lab in the Time of Coronavirus from Columbia's Zuckerman Institute or Columbia Public Health Now Podcast.
The Royal Society of London is making all of its research findings and data regarding the Covid-19 pandemic open access.
You can also read first-person accounts shared in major news outlets and other resources via the Institute of Psychiatry at Cornell University.
What Happens Next? breaks down possible Covid-19 futures with playable simulations.
- Browse the Making and Knowing Project’s newly published Secrets of Craft and Nature in Renaissance France. A Digital Critical Edition and English Translation of BnF Ms. Fr. 640.
- CDC’s Stop the Outbreak game lets you step into the shoes of an epidemiologist.
- Color Our Collections from the New York Academy of Medicine features free coloring books from museums and libraries around the globe.
- Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics is an online collection from Harvard University offering historical perspectives on the science and public policy of epidemiology today.
- Coronavirus Tech Handbook developed by the London College of Political Technologists. Includes data repositories, maps, tech toolkits and more.
- New York Academy of Medicine Library offers databases and digitized exhibitions and manuscripts.
- NYBG at Home from the New York Botanical Garden is a new content hub featuring videos, plant guides, virtual events, recipes for kids
- Smithsonian Learning Lab lets you explore collections of science, culture, and history.
- The Tamer Center for Social Enterprise at Columbia Business School hosts a weekly webinar addressing social and environmental concerns regarding COVID-19 from the viewpoint of the social enterprise sector
- Travel to museums and explore new themes using Google Arts and Culture.
- Visit the National Parks with Google Arts and Culture in a guided tour of five parks from around the country.
- Visit Mars with the Curiosity Rover thanks to Google and NASA.
- Watch live cameras from the San Diego Zoo.
- Watch past Center for Science and Society lectures and workshops via our Youtube channel.
- Zooniverse is the largest citizen science platform in the world. Explore projects from across the sciences and humanities.
General Science and Society Resources
- Edwin H. Armstrong Papers (1886-1982)
- Elizabeth Blackwell Letters (1850-1884)
- Charles Frederick Chandler Papers (1847-1937)
- Marie Curie - Maire Meloney Correspondence (1920-1943)
- Edward Epstean Papers (1923-1942)
- Robert Fulton Papers (1809-1838)
- Mary Lasker Papers (1940-1993)
- Robert K. Merton Papers (1928-2003)
- Auchincloss Florence Nightingale Collection (1838-1910)
- Walter W. Palmer Collection of Medical Education Reprints (1906-1950)
- George Braxton Pegram Papers (1903-1958)
- George A. Plimpton Papers (1634-1956)
- Michael Idvorsky Pupin Papers (1800-1995)
- Otto Rank Papers (1903-1988)
- David Eugene Smith Collection of Historical Papers (1400-1899)
- David Eugene Smith Professional Papers (1860-1945)
- Lynn Thorndike Papers (1902-1963)
- Lillian D. Wald Papers (1895-1936)
Other Collections:
- Community Service Society Archives (1842-1995)
- Jewels in Her Crown: Treasures from the Special Collections of Columbia’s Libraries
- Oral History Archives feature individual interviews and group projects such as Physicians for Reproductive Health and Choice, the Thomas Alva Edison Project, and the Radio Pioneers Project.
- Library of the Surgeon-General’s Office Index Catalog
- Online catalog available with Columbia UNI sign-in.
Research Guides
- Behaving and Misbehaving: The Body in Early Modern Europe
- Bioethics
- Craft and Science: Objects and Making in the Early Modern World
- Earth Systems and Environmental Politics, Policy, and Management
- Environmental and Energy Policy
- Food Sustainability
- History of Health and Healing in Africa
- Sustainability Policy Studies
Library Subject Specialist in History of Science and Technology: Meredith Levin. Other subject specialists can be viewed via the Columbia Libraries website.
- Columbia University - Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at the Mailman School of Public Health
- Columbia University - University Seminar in the History and Philosophy of Science
- The City College of New York - Department of History
- The City University of New York - Department of History
- Fordham University
- New York University - Gallatin School of Individualized Study
- New York University - Department of History
- The New York Academy of Medicine
- The New York Academy of Medicine - Center for the History of Medicine and Public Health
- The New York Academy of Sciences
- The New York Botanical Garden
- The New York Botanical Garden - The Humanities Institute
- The State University of New York
- Stevens Institute of Technology - IEEE History Center
- Stevens Institute of Technology - Science and Technology Studies
- The British Society for the History of Science
- British Society for the Philosophy of Science
- Center for History of Physics
- Consortium for History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
- European Association for the Study of Science and Technology
- History of Science Society
- International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science
- Science History Institute
- Society for the History of Technology
- The Society for Philosophy and Technology