Café Scientifique [Cafe Sci]

This initiative includes several different projects through which young people, together with experts, engage in practical, hands-on experiences. An emphasis on student involvement is important, meaning that students choose the topics and, in many cases, run their own Cafés. Any topic can be covered, but they tend to be highly relevant, topical, controversial, or all three. Students in Uganda may choose to focus on HIV/AIDS, for example, but there are also universal themes: topics such as the science of love, mobile phones, and aliens are much in evidence. According to organisers, at the best-run Cafés, the speaker's talk is just a small part: discussion is the main aim. Props can be a great asset. At Stockley's Café in the UK, the speaker, Jaya Nemchand, a PhD student from Brunel University, produces some hip replacement joints and artificial knees that grab the students' attention and help to illustrate the applications of her research. Finally, the café-style environment, often with free drinks and snacks, is designed to make both the speaker and students feel at home.

Sample activities include:

• Fundi Bots: Uganda's Café Sci students who are interested in robotics science spent time with an expert to explore their passion. With a grant from Google RISE, Café Sci and Fundi Bots held a robotics camp for 30 students from 5 schools which, according to organisers, attracted a lot of media attention. For example, Voice of America did an interview with the robotics project's expert, and there was a report on the BBC News Business Website entitled "Can Robotics Change the Future of a Nation?"
• In July 2012, one Ugandan school had an opportunity to interact with a visiting professor from Brigham University in the United States who performed chemistry demonstrations. Organisers say that she "charmed the 300 + students with exciting experiments involving properties of matter - gases and liquids; and salt reactions! Students were invited to participate in the demonstrations on the properties of water as a liquid, steam and ice form! These and three other experiments with coke, hydrogen peroxide and balloons offered an enjoyable learning experience for students from a school without a science laboratory. Within an hour, Jennifer was able to teach the chemistry in a simple and experiential manner allowing the students to think behind what they was being demonstrated. This way, science was simplified and inspiring - this kind of approach is what our teachers need to emulate to make science relevant and interesting. Addressing the students, the converted head teacher encouraged the students to use this experience to pass the examinations that are ongoing at the school."
• International connections: In May 2012, Uganda's Café Sci students linked up with Café Sci students in the UK on Skype, most of whom were using Skype for the first time.
• Networking and engaging with science bodies like the Uganda National Academy of Sciences and Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) has given the Uganda Café Sci team the platform to reach a wider audience and become recognised at the national level.
• Uganda's Café Sci has hosted sessions on topics such as: how does the internet work, nanotechnology and human cloning, and how do pictures get on TV. One challenge was in the upcountry schools in Mbale. According to organisers, follow-up and regular contact with the teacher, students, and head teachers helped to give the project momentum - guiding students to select topics like the science of aeroplanes, which led to a pilot coming to the schools - causing "a lot of ripples in the surrounding schools about the café. Holding twin cafes for popular speakers helped to save on time and maximum use of the resource persons."
• In Uganda, where access to computer facilities and the internet is not always possible, Café Sci's user-friendly way of interacting with science and scientists has been welcomed.

In Uganda, Café Sci events are generally held in English. But, in areas where English is not widely spoken and where internet or library facilities are not available, Cafés are held in the native language.

Children, Youth, Education.

The first Café was held in Leeds, UK, in 1998. Supported by funding from the Wellcome Trust, Café Scientifique was extended into UK schools in 2005, becoming Café Sci. As of July 2010, there were more than 50 running in the UK; as of September 2012, there are 30 Ugandan schools that have run cafes.

Former Café Sci students are reportedly choosing interesting and challenging science fields and write back to say that Café Sci has motivated them. "I am besides myself with excitement. One of our cafe students has enrolled for aeronautical engineering! The mother caught up with me on Saturday after a two week search to tell me how 'my "things of café' inspired the daughter to go for the course. This is a big ray of hope for many Ugandan children who have big dreams of working in the aerospace industry yet many people tell them it is beyond their reach. I am waiting for her to return to UG so that she can tell the whole school at assembly about it," wrote Gerald Muhumuza, teacher coordinator, Bishop Cipriano S.S.