Checklist for Starting a Teen Café Scientifique Program

Establish your program goals. It is helpful to start with explicit program goals and revisit them regularly to see whether the program is achieving them; these might include any or all of:

• Teens acquire a richer, more nuanced understanding of the nature of science.
• Teens are more confident discussing science developments and their potential impact on society.
• Teens come to see scientists as real people leading interesting lives.
• Teens get a better appreciation of the relevance of science to their daily lives.
• Teens acquire increased science literacy concerning current issues in science.
• Some teens come to consider the possibility of a life in science for themselves.
• Teens develop skills and attitudes for lifelong learning in science.

Know and implement the essential ingredients of a successful Café program. These include:

• Teens need to have a sense of ownership of the program to a maximal degree.
• Café scientists must be well-vetted for their communication and interpersonal skills and then coached to communicate effectively with teens specifically.
• The program must have a committed “local hero” with the energy to make the Cafés a success.
• Interactivity and active learning is crucial for achieving impact with teens.
• Relationships with institutions that encourage their scientists to participate are essential.

Set up a budget. The main costs are in staff time, venue rental, and food. However, there are ways to keep all of these at a minimum or free.

Staff time is the most difficult to estimate and will depend on whether your organization already has a strong connection to a teen audience, a source of high quality presenters, and knowledge and access to resources that might supplement a presentation with an activity. These are the major variables in the time required. If your organization does not have the above connections and resources, the staff time to build them could be large initially, but then decreases significantly after the first year. The actual time involved in hosting the Café and supporting the TLT activities is on the order of 6-8 hours per Café.

Room rental charges can be free to expensive. We have found that many venues will waive room rental charges, because organizations see the program as an asset that supports their community, scientific or educational mission. Look for space that typically is not used in the evening, like research parks, corporations, and colleges. Commit to always leave the venue clean so the host site has no added costs for cleaning.

Food costs run at about $2-3 per teen, but can be much less if only chips and drinks are served, for example. The more teens that attend, the lower the cost per teen, if you buy in bulk. However, some venues may require that all food is purchased through their in- house caterer, which typically increased costs to as much as $10-12 per person.

Additional costs might include a small honorarium (~$50) for the presenter, though adult Café programs do not offer these. Transportation costs or car pool subsidies for teens could be offered, if funds are available, and the distance traveled warrants it. This might add $30-$40 per meeting to the cost of a larger Café program.

Go into the schools. This is the best place to spark teen interest in your Café program. Early in the school year, having made contact with the high school science teachers, ask them to arrange a meeting with their students, perhaps over lunch hour.

If possible, conduct a short “mini-Café” on a topic familiar to you so that kids can get a sense of a typical Café.

Use the opportunity to recruit students interested in being on the program’s teen leadership team. You may be surprised at how many teens seize on this opportunity. Get the name, phone number, and email address of those who express interest. Start an email alias for teen leaders.

It is quite useful to make acquaintance with the school principal and the front office staff as well so they know about the program and its benefits to their students.

Seek out other teen-serving organizations. Look for opportunities to make a similar pitch at other organizations serving high school age teens, such as teen centers, YMCAs, and extra-curricular programs.

Advertise widely. There are many ways to advertise your program in general and upcoming Café sessions in particular that you can take advantage of.

Once you have presenters and topics identified and scheduled for a semester or year, make up a poster and ask that it be displayed in school hallways and classrooms and in other venues where teens congregate. Local businesses and other organizations that serve teens may be willing to post them as well, thus reaching parents.

Make up colorful, provocative flyers announcing an upcoming Café meeting; arrange for them to be posted in school a couple days in advance. This is a good job for the teen leaders, but you will have to get the flyers into their hands. The flyers can be posted in other venues as well.

Ask the school to announce the Café meeting during morning announcements. Often sports announcers will be willing to make a similar announcement during halftime at sporting events. Some schools post announcements on a marquee sign in front of the school; this is another opportunity.

Local media outlets may also be willing to pitch your program at no cost. Local newspapers are often hungry for colorful stories about interesting programs in the community.

During Café sessions, get teens to fill out sign-in cards with their email addresses and phone numbers; have a drawing for a door prize as incentive. Accumulate a contact list that can then be used to remind kids about upcoming Cafés. Establish a Facebook page and use it similarly.

Meet with teen leaders. Once you have recruited a group of teen leaders in a high school, arrange to meet with them over lunch or after school to explain what to expect of their involvement and how it can benefit them; this will solidify their commitment. Ask them to inquire of their friends about possible interest in the program and being a teen leader.

Develop a list of potential topics. The teen leaders will be eager to tell you what topics they think would be interesting in a Café, so poll their interest as you begin the recruiting process for an upcoming season. The teens do not know the universe of interesting science, and you may not be able to find a scientist who is available to present on a particular topic. And a great presenter can make an obscure topic come alive, while a poor presenter can make the most interesting topic seem boring. But if you try to satisfy the teens’ wishes, you are likely to have some success. This reinforces the teens’ sense of ownership of their program.

Ask around. Ask contacts in organizations where you have developed contacts for recommendations on colleagues who are doing some particularly interesting research and have given successful public talks. An organization’s public relations office can be a good source of information about skilled presenters. Make further inquiries about the skills of likely presenters that have been recommended to you.

Conduct a background check on potential presenters. Having gotten a recommendation, it is wise to thoroughly vet that potential presenter as best you can. Seek out others who have heard the person present. Visit his or her website, which will often give you a strong impression about whether he or she is what you are looking for in your teen Café.

Make your approach to potential presenters. This may take the form of a first email. Explain the nature of your teen Café program and say that the person has been recommended to you as someone who might conduct an interesting Café on such and such a topic. Point out up front the importance of a high degree of interactivity in communicating with the teen audience and the desirability of some kind of active learning resource. Ask whether this scientist is interested and feels that he or she can adapt a presentation for your particular audience. If all goes well, extend a formal invitation; you will find most presenters eager to participate.

Communicate with presenters. It is of value to send some form of post-season thank you letter to your presenters and show them the whole list of the season’s Cafés. You will find that most of your presenters become invested in your program and will prove helpful to you in the future. It is good to nurture among your presenters a sense of being a member of a cohort that has had your teen Café experience.

You might take the opportunity to include a brief questionnaire soliciting some feedback from the presenters concerning their experience and recommendations for improvements. Café Scientifique New Mexico has used this questionnaire, and has received wonderful feedback.

Organize a special post-season meeting with the teen leaders. Another valuable form of thank you is to organize a post-season social with your teen leaders. Take them for pizza or take them bowling, whatever. This will solidify their sense of being part of an important and well-appreciated team and get them set for next season. Take the opportunity to ask them to recruit others to the teen leadership team between seasons.

You will be losing seniors who graduate, but try and keep in touch with them, as they may prove to be a valuable resource in the future.

Ask presenters to recommend other presenters. It is wise to start your recruitment for next season early. The best place to start is with a request for recommendations sent to previous presenters.

Organize a retreat of teen leaders. Shortly before school starts, organize another one-day weekend retreat for teen leaders. This will re-set expectations for—and the tone throughout—the coming season.

Advertise the coming season. As the school year begins, again proactively advertise the coming season of your teen Café.

Please see our Café Scientifique Summative Report