Tagged Science
From Sloths to Sleuths: The Academy of Natural Sciences Free Pass Program!
The Academy of Natural Sciences and the Free Library of Philadelphia are old friends. For over 100 years, they have lived across from each other on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, educating and entertaining Philadelphians. In…
Get Ready for the 2024 Solar Eclipse on Monday, April 8!
Something very special is happening on Monday, April 8 : a total solar eclipse will cross North America from Mexico to Canada! After April 8, the next solar eclipse viewable from the contiguous United States won't occur…
Explore the Geology of the Wissahickon Park
William Penn’s dream of having a “Green Country Towne” inspired many generations to preserve parks and green spaces throughout the city and region. One prime example of this is the great Wissahickon Valley Park ,…
Empathy Versus Misinformation Wrap-Up
Thank you to everyone who came out to our Empathy Versus Misinformation: Transgender Youth series of panels. There has been a lot of interest in transgender youth in the media, and yet so few easy ways to access reliable answers to…
It’s National Immunization Awareness Month!
by Lillian B. and Jake T. Afraid of shots or needles? Have questions about protecting your health? Get excited to learn with us this National Immunization Awareness Month ! Primarily, immunizations are most effective when given to…
Add Some Science to Your Summer with the Franklin Institute
Do you have a young scientist at home? An endless Lego tower builder or a spaceship dreamer? A robot creator or future climate-change solver? Sign up for a new virtual summertime science adventure with The Franklin Institute . This…
Picture Book Highlights | Women in Science
March is Women’s History Month—let’s take a look at recent books highlighting women in science! From deep in the ocean and outer space to medicine and physics, women have been playing an important role in advancing…
Dr. Rebecca Cole: Pioneering Philadelphia Doctor and African American Health Advocate
One of the joys of my profession is not knowing who will spark my curiosity to continue learning about something or someone. To celebrate Black History Month this year, I let my curiosity guide me to inventors and scientists either born…
Digital Media Spotlight | Shark Week 2020
It's that time of year again... where you'll never know what to expect from... Shark Week ! For the past 32 years, Shark Week has grown from a small, PBS-styled series of documentary programming to a full-blown pop culture…
A STEM-focused Summer Tech Extravanganza at Lawncrest Library!
by Marcela F. and Hua C. The meeting room at the Lawncrest Library was a hub of STEM activities in July and early August. Hua, our Summer Learning Program Specialist, along with Teen Literacy Coaches Alex and Zoma, presented a…
Delving into the Science of Me
In the midst of a heat wave, Science in the Summer continues to spark young minds! For over thirty years, the program has demystified the sciences with free, hands-on learning for students entering 2nd-6th grades, all the while…
Fly Me to the Moon: Apollo 11 at 50
Fifty years ago today, Neil Armstrong , Buzz Aldrin , and Michael Collins first set off into space to explore the surface of the Moon. Their mission, Apollo 11 , was the culmination of decades of determined research and experimentation…
Celebrating Math and Formulas in Teen Books for Pi Day!
Ah March, that most unusual of months – is it spring or winter? Will it snow one last time? Are the crocuses blooming yet to give me a glimmer of hope? One fun way to get through these last few weeks of almost spring/fourth winter…
Celebrating the Trivia Nerd in All of Us
I have a confession to make—I am that friend who always wants to get a trivia team together on a Tuesday night. I’m also that kid who read Trivial Pursuit cards for fun to see if I could guess the answers. And I ask Santa…
Science in the Summer Is Back!
Science in the Summer is returning to the Free Library of Philadelphia and we are excited about this year’s curriculum—The Science of Space. By bringing the Science of Space to elementary school children, we’re showing…
Embrace the Sacred and Interstellar Through the Art and Poetry of Stellar Masses
Yolanda Wisher is back! She left us in 2017 as the first Poet Laureate since the Free Library assumed responsibility for nurturing our city's chief word smith. On May 9, 2018 at 6:30 p.m., she's returning as curator with…
A Science Minute: 7 Female Philadelphia Scientists You've Probably Never Heard Of
Science is the star this week around Philly, with the start of the annual Philadelphia Science Festival beginning this past weekend. We thought we would delve deep into our book stacks and search out some noteworthy yet unheralded…
#GetNerdyPHL at the Philadelphia Science Festival!
In Philadelphia, April means the Philadelphia Science Festival ! The week-long festival, hosted by the Franklin Institute, includes hundreds of free and low-cost programs across the city for children, families, and adults. The Free…
Wrap Your Head Around These Books About the Brain
Three upcoming new books, coming out in three consecutive months, will focus on the subject of the workings of the human brain. Helen Thomson, a freelance science journalist, tells the stories of nine extraordinary people from…
Pi Day: Stephen Hawking Travels to Infinity
If you are reading this on March 14 at 1:59 p.m., then it must be Pi Day (Pi at 5 decimal places = 3.14159, natch!) This annual celebration of the mathematical constant π (Pi), or in its easiest understood numeric equivalent, 3.14,…
Sew What?! Evening Sewcial-Needle Crafts
Sew What?! Is a clever and creative get together for crafters who do crochet, knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting, felting, and more. Want to share what you're making with other fabric crafters? Join us to collaborate and…
Wednesday STEAM LEAP Activity
An activity that changes from week to week to explore language, art, and/or STEM topics in the children's section from 3pm-4:45pm.
Sew What?! Afternoon Sewcial-Needle Crafts
Sew What?! Is a clever and creative get together for crafters who do crochet, knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting, felting, and more. Want to share what you're making with other fabric crafters? Join us to collaborate and…
Samantha Harvey | Orbital
The Author Events Series presents Samantha Harvey | Orbital REGISTER WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024 A slender novel of epic power and the winner of the Booker Prize 2024, Orbital deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six…
Sew What?! Evening Sewcial-Needle Crafts
Sew What?! Is a clever and creative get together for crafters who do crochet, knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting, felting, and more. Want to share what you're making with other fabric crafters? Join us to collaborate and…
Wednesday STEAM LEAP Activity
An activity that changes from week to week to explore language, art, and/or STEM topics in the children's section from 3pm-4:45pm.
Sew What?! Afternoon Sewcial-Needle Crafts
Sew What?! Is a clever and creative get together for crafters who do crochet, knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting, felting, and more. Want to share what you're making with other fabric crafters? Join us to collaborate and…
Sew What?! Evening Sewcial-Needle Crafts
Sew What?! Is a clever and creative get together for crafters who do crochet, knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting, felting, and more. Want to share what you're making with other fabric crafters? Join us to collaborate and…
Wednesday STEAM LEAP Activity
An activity that changes from week to week to explore language, art, and/or STEM topics in the children's section from 3pm-4:45pm.
Sew What?! Afternoon Sewcial-Needle Crafts
Sew What?! Is a clever and creative get together for crafters who do crochet, knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting, felting, and more. Want to share what you're making with other fabric crafters? Join us to collaborate and…
Sew What?! Evening Sewcial-Needle Crafts
Sew What?! Is a clever and creative get together for crafters who do crochet, knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting, felting, and more. Want to share what you're making with other fabric crafters? Join us to collaborate and…
Wednesday STEAM LEAP Activity
An activity that changes from week to week to explore language, art, and/or STEM topics in the children's section from 3pm-4:45pm.
Sew What?! Afternoon Sewcial-Needle Crafts
Sew What?! Is a clever and creative get together for crafters who do crochet, knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting, felting, and more. Want to share what you're making with other fabric crafters? Join us to collaborate and…
Sew What?! Evening Sewcial-Needle Crafts
Sew What?! Is a clever and creative get together for crafters who do crochet, knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting, felting, and more. Want to share what you're making with other fabric crafters? Join us to collaborate and…
Wednesday STEAM LEAP Activity
An activity that changes from week to week to explore language, art, and/or STEM topics in the children's section from 3pm-4:45pm.
Sew What?! Afternoon Sewcial-Needle Crafts
Sew What?! Is a clever and creative get together for crafters who do crochet, knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting, felting, and more. Want to share what you're making with other fabric crafters? Join us to collaborate and…
Sew What?! Evening Sewcial-Needle Crafts
Sew What?! Is a clever and creative get together for crafters who do crochet, knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting, felting, and more. Want to share what you're making with other fabric crafters? Join us to collaborate and…
Wednesday STEAM LEAP Activity
An activity that changes from week to week to explore language, art, and/or STEM topics in the children's section from 3pm-4:45pm.
Sew What?! Afternoon Sewcial-Needle Crafts
Sew What?! Is a clever and creative get together for crafters who do crochet, knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting, felting, and more. Want to share what you're making with other fabric crafters? Join us to collaborate and…
Sew What?! Evening Sewcial-Needle Crafts
Sew What?! Is a clever and creative get together for crafters who do crochet, knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting, felting, and more. Want to share what you're making with other fabric crafters? Join us to collaborate and…
STEM - Science
Suggested books for students in the field of science.
STEM - Engineering
Suggested books for students in the field of engineering.
NASA
Learn more about The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which is responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research.
Wild Weather
From global warming and carbon footprints to new weather forecasting technologies and more frequent natural disasters like volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides, tornadoes, typhoons, hurricanes, and more.
Fantastic Planets and Adventurous Astronauts
Read these biographies of astronauts and the planets and galaxies they have explored.
Gale OneFile | High School Edition (formerly InfoTrac Student Edition) *
High school students will have access to age-appropriate content from magazines, journals, newspapers, reference books, and engaging multi-media covering a wide range of subjects, from science, history, and literature to political…
Gale in Context | Middle School (formerly Research in Context) *
Discover reliable and trusted information on a variety of topics to support middle school student research for government, U.S and world history, geography, literature, sciences, and social issues. Research In Context offers…
American Physical Society Online Journals
Academic Search Main Edition *
Academic Search Main Edition is a multi-disciplinary database providing full text for nearly 2,000 journals and periodicals and is updated daily on EBSCOhost.
Academic OneFile
More than 20,000 peer-reviewed journals and more than 9,200 in full text Full text of The Economist ranging from 1988 to the present, with no embargo Full text of The New York Times from 1985 to present, updated daily Full text of The…
Dasha Kiper | Travelers to Unimaginable Lands: Stories of Dementia, the Caregivers, and the Human Brain
In conversation with Dr. Jason Karlawish In partnership with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society The clinical consulting director of support groups at The CaringKind (formerly The Alzheimer's Association), Dasha Kiper has an MA in…
R. Jisung Park | Slow Burn: The Hidden Costs of a Warming World
In conversation with Patrick Behrer, Research Economist, Development Economics, World Bank How the subtle but significant consequences of a hotter planet have already begun—from lower test scores to higher crime rates—and how we might…
Dennis Yi Tenen | Literary Theory for Robots: How Computers Learned to Write
Dennis Yi Tenen is an associate professor of English at Columbia University, where he also serves as co-director of the Center for Comparative Media. Affiliated with Columbia’s Data Science Institute, he is a former fellow at the…
Emily Nagoski | Come Together: The Science (and Art!) of Creating Lasting Sexual Connections
Emily Nagoski is the author of the New York Times bestseller Come as You Are , a self-help manual lauded by critics and readers for its ability to “offer up hard facts on the science of arousal and desire in a friendly and…
Annie Liontas | Sex with a Brain Injury: On Concussion and Recovery
In conversation with CJ Hauser Featured as an Editor’s Choice in The New York Times Book Review , Annie Liontas ' debut novel, Let Me Explain You , follows the bridge-burning patriarch of a Greek American family who believes he has…
Siddhartha Mukherjee | The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human
In conversation with Carl H. June, MD, Director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, University of Pennsylvania Siddhartha Mukherjee won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for The Emperor of All Maladies , a “meticulously…
Michael E. Mann | Our Fragile Moment: How Lessons from Earth's Past Can Help Us Survive the Climate Crisis
The Presidential Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania, climatologist and geophysicist Michael E. Mann has greatly contributed to science’s…
Simon Schama | Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines, and the Health of Nations
Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture In conversation with Maiken Scott “A historian of prodigious and varied gifts” ( San Francisco Chronicle ), Simon Schama is the author of 20 books, including The Embarrassment of Riches; Scribble,…
Barbara Butcher | What the Dead Know: Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator with Kate White | Between Two Strangers
Barbara Butcher is the former chief of staff and director of the Forensic Sciences Training Program at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). Only the second woman hired as a death investigator in Manhattan (and the…
Linda Villarosa | Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation
A contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and The 1619 Project, Linda Villarosa has won numerous awards for articles concerning issues of Black mother and infant health, medical myths, America’s hidden HIV epidemic,…
Sarah Bakewell | Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope
In conversation with Eric Banks Acclaimed for “wonderfully readable” fusions of “biography, philosophy, history, cultural analysis and personal reflection” ( The Independent ), Sarah Bakewell is the author of At the Existentialist Café…
Simon Winchester | Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic
Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture Exuding “the comfort and charm of a beloved encyclopedia come to life” ( The New Yorker ), Simon Winchester is the bestselling author of nearly 30 nonfiction books that explore some of the world’s…
Angela Saini | The Patriarchs: The Origins of Inequality
Angela Saini is the author of Superior , an “easy-to-read blend of science reporting, cultural criticism, and personal reflection” ( Slate ) that explores the resurgence of the harmful and faulty study of race science. She is also the…
John Hendrickson | Life on Delay: Making Peace with a Stutter
In conversation with Robert Kolker John Hendrickson is the author of a 2019 Atlantic article titled “What Joe Biden Can’t Bring Himself to Say.” An account of the President’s—and his own—lifelong experience with stuttering, it was…
Anna Badkhen | Bright Unbearable Reality: Essays
In conversation with Airea D. Matthews, 2022-2023 Philadelphia Poet Laureate and Co-Director of the Creative Writing Program at Bryn Mawr With an artist’s perspective and a ground-level view of people in extremis across the world,…
Douglas Rushkoff | Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires
In conversation with Kevin Werbach Acclaimed for their intersectional explorations of cyberculture, religion, currency, and politics, Douglas Rushkoff’s 20 bestselling books include Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, Program or Be…
Michael Pollan | This is Your Mind on Plants
In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition One of the world’s foremost chroniclers of the intersection of the human and natural worlds, Michael Pollan is a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of…
Bill McKibben | The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened
“The world’s best green journalist” ( TIME ), Bill McKibben gave one of the earliest cautions about climate change with his 1989 book The End of Nature . His many other bestselling books about the environment include Falter , Deep…
M. Chris Fabricant | Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System
Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture In conversation with John Holloway One of the United States’s foremost experts on forensic sciences and the criminal justice system, M. Chris Fabricant is the director of strategic litigation at the…
Frans de Waal | Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist
“A pioneer in primate studies” ( The Wall Street Journal ), Dr. Frans de Waal is the author of The Bonobo and the Atheist , an exploration of the biological roots of human morality found in primate social interaction. His other 16…
Weather Wiz Kids
One stop for all kinds of weather links, just for kids! For grades 3 and up.
Visible Earth
From NASA. Images of our planet that can be searched by satellite, region, state, and more. For grades 4 and up.
US Department of Education STEM programs
List of programs and research with STEM emphasis.
The Weather Channel
From the Weather Channel. Includes your local forecast, stormwatches, ski conditions, flu outbreaks, and more. For 4th grade and up.
The Space Place
Games, projects, amazing facts, and more brought to you from NASA. For grades 3 and up.
The Franklin Institute STEM Scholars
Program that serves a select group of Philadelphia-area students in grades 9-12 who are passionate about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects.
STEM Philly
STEM Philly's goal is to stimulate students’ interest in STEM subjects and enhance their learning so they will become part of the STEM workforce in the Philadelphia area. With the help of volunteers and partners organizations, Explore…
STEM Education Coalition
Raises awareness in Congress, the Administration, and other organizations about the critical role that STEM education plays in enabling the U.S. to remain the economic and technological leader of the global marketplace of the 21st century.
Solar System Exploration - Kids
A kids' page from NASA. Build your own models, submit pictures for the art gallery, watch videos and more. For 2nd grade and up.
Philadelphia Science Festival
The Philadelphia Science Festival is a nine-day, community-wide celebration of science that takes place annually in April, featuring lectures, debates, hands-on activities, special exhibitions and a variety of other informal science…
PBS.org-Savage Earth
Just like the Savage Earth series. Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Volcanoes, and more. For grades 4 and up.
PBS LearningMedia
Lots of STEM-related content and lesson plans on this free digital media content library site that builds on the strength of public media and is the destination for relevant educational resources for PreK-12 teachers.
Natural Disasters
In every place humans live, the possibility of a natural disaster exists. From National Geographic. Grades 4 and up.
National Weather Service
From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service. Includes advisories, all kinds of forecasts, and text message signup. For grades 5 and up.
National Severe Storms Laboratory
Coloring books that you can print about weather! For Kindergarten and up. Children may need help with printing.
NASA History Division
A history of astronauts and their biographies from NASA. For grades 4 and up.
Kids Against Global Warming
Do something about global warming. The best things to do to prevent global warming. For grades 2 and up.
Exploring the Planets
From the National Air and Space Museum. Explore comets, compare planets, take a trip on the Voyager and more! For grades 4 and up.
ESA Kids
A website for kids from the European Space Academy. Includes information about space, earth, and other cool facts about our universe. For grades 4 and up.
EPA for kids
From the Environmental Protection Agency, for kids. Climate change, the greenhouse effect, games and more. For grades 3 and up.