Submitted by Mónica Ivelisse Feliú-Mójer on 19 March 2020 - 4:38pm
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We are facing a pandemic of the new Sar-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes the respiratory disease COVID-19. The situation has disrupted everyone's lives in unprecedented ways. We understand that there is much concern and uncertainty, and that the situation is constantly and rapidly evolving. That is why the CienciaPR Team has activated its #CienciaBoricua community to educate, inform, and promote the well-being of our people. As always, in this emergency, we are ready to put science in service of Puerto Rico. Here we share information for participants of our programs, educational resources, ways you can help, ways to stay informed, details of our science communication efforts about COVID-19 and how you can support us.
ARE YOU A PARTICIPANT IN OUR PROGRAMS?
If you are a participant in one of our science education programs including Ciencia al Servicio or Semillas de Triunfo or Yale Ciencia Academy, we want you to know that we are constantly monitoring the COVID-19 situation. We will be contacting you directly to inform you if there are any changes in the programs or their implementation due to the coronavirus emergency.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
Write science articles or op-eds: CienciaPR has a long-standing collaboration with the newspaper El Nuevo Día. Through this collaboration, CienciaPR members can contribute science articles about coronavirus and COVID-19 research or opinion columns on the topic. If you are interested in contributing articles or op-eds, email contact@cienciapr.org.
Help students learn about science: If you are a professional or student with knowledge of STEM topics, participate of Científicos al Servicio En Línea to offer virtual talks and demonstrations to Spanish-speaking school audiences. Learn more here and complete our form.
Donate materials, reagents, or equipment: There is now a way to donate supplies, materials, and medical and laboratory reagents for COVID-19. If you have materials please complete this form.
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
With classes being canceled, here are some resources to continue the education of school children:
Online Lessons from the “Ciencia al Servicio Kit”: We have modified lessons from our Ciencia al Servicio Educator Kit so that they can be used independently by students or guided by an adult. Lessons cover 4th to 12th grade Department of Education science standards through fun activities. Download them for free here.
¡Ciencia Boricua! Book: Published by CienciaPR in 2011, ¡Ciencia Boricua! contains 61 essays and stories written by 24 Puerto Rican scientists. The book is accompanied by a topic guide to facilitate its use for education. ¡Ciencia Boricua! has been used by hundreds of teachers and schools around Puerto Rico to make science relevant to the Puerto Rican culture and context. The book and topic guide are only available in Spanish.
Science is Also Around You Videos: This series features short videos developed to complement the 7th-9th grade science curriculum. The videos focus on astronomy topics, feature role models, including scientists, engineers, and technology professionals, and illustrate science in an exciting and relevant way for the lives of Puerto Rican students.
News, Blogs and Profiles: CienciaPR has a repository of hundreds of news, blog posts and profiles that highlight Puerto Rican science and scientists. This content is frequently used by educators in their classrooms to contextualize science to the culture and reality of Puerto Rico, show examples of Puerto Rican scientists and the world-class research of our scientific community. The majority of the content is translated into English, but some is only available in Spanish. You can download the news and blog posts as PDF using the PDF version button that you see below the title of each one.
ACHÚ: This activity book for young children on COVID-19 was created by the Puerto Rico Public Health Trust. Download it for free here.
Surveillance platform to identify COVID19 outbreaks in Puerto Rico created by Ponce Health Sciences University and the Puerto Rico Public Health Trust
SCIENCE COMMUNICATION EFFORTS Members of CienciaPR have been publishing op-eds and science articles in El Nuevo Día newspaper in Puerto Rico. Our community has published more than 35 articles so far. Article topics range from the basic biology of the coronavirus, to epidemiology and public health, science policy, and disease ecology, to debunking myths about the disease. Due to time constraints, the articles are only available in Spanish at this time. CienciaPR members have also been making radio and TV appeareances in outlets like Noticias Telemundo, WIAC 740AM, and Latino Rebels, among others. SUPPORT US! Our COVID-19 efforts will be focused on applying the #cienciaboricua community’s knowledge and talents to promote Puerto Rico’swell-being through science communication and education. Donations would be greatly appreciated and would help us advance those goals. Please note, we are a non-profit entity registered in Puerto Rico but we have not received 501c3 designation yet. If you would like more information, please contact us. To stay up to date with the latest, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
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