Science Cafés
The purpose of the Science Café program is to strengthen science literacy by engaging the community and translational scientists in an informal setting through bi-directional dialogue of current scientific and medical issues and their translational impact on our culture and society.
About Science Cafés
The very first Science Café (also know as Café Scientifique) was held in Leeds in the United Kingdom in 1998.The founder of this grassroots movement, Duncan Dallas, describes a Café as “a place where, for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, people meet to discuss the latest ideas of science and technology which are changing our lives.” Since then, the Science Cafés have popped up all over the globe, with over 200 worldwide in more than 40 countries and at least 50 in the United States alone. Our Science Café series is the first in Southeast Wisconsin.
According to the website www.sciencecafes.org, a Science Café resource site maintained by the WGBH Educational Foundation, there are several ways in which Science Cafés can have educational impact:
- Conversations increase understanding. Participating in a discussion gives people the chance to think through new ideas and reformulate them in their own words.
- Conversations increase interest. The open-ended nature of a science café enables people to explore whatever aspects of a topic, or the scientific process in general, interest them most.
- Conversations lead to more conversations. People enjoy talking about issues at a science café and are therefore likely to discuss the topic outside of the café with friends and family.
- Conversations are equalizers. Face to face conversations help to dispel misperceptions and stereotypes of scientists and their work.
For our Cafés, the primary focus will be on translational science. We will be able to utilize translational scientists affiliated with the CTSI partner institutions, which affords us a very wide range of topics.
Upcoming Cafés
Next Science Café – FROM BENCH TO BEDSIDE: TREATMENT ADVANCES IN BREAST CANCER
Tuesday, June 27, 2017 @ 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Location
St. Ann Center for Intergenerational Care, Bucyrus Campus
2450 W North Ave
Milwaukee, WI 53205
Past Cafés
Select the links below to open a PDF flyer of each event
May 23, 2017
Stroke Rehabilitation: The Impact of Technology on Recovery
April 25, 2017
Opioid Epidemic: Why Now, Why Us, What To Do
March 21, 2017
Treating Acute Pain Experienced by Children: Sharing Evidence and Debunking Myths
February 28, 2017
DIABETES: How Do We Know Which Approaches Work Best?
January 31, 2017
Hiding in Plain Sight: Building Academic-Community Linkages for the Treatment of Hypertension
Our Café Format & Goals
Format
Our approach is similar to the first Science Café. The format involves an expert from a given scientific field who interacts with an inquisitive public in an informal, non-academic environment.
- The scientist/medical professional will speak on the evenings topic for about 20 minutes.
- There is a short break to allow participants to mingle and begin discussing the topic with one-another and the presenter.
- The speaker, with the help of a facilitator, engages in 45-60 minutes of informal discussion with the audience.
Participants are encouraged to ask the speaker anything that they like. The casual atmosphere is conducive for a relaxed and comfortable audience and as a result, participants generally are more likely to ask questions and engage in public conversation.
Please Note
Photography: During the Science Café, we may capture photos that will solely be used for the aims of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute and Community Engagement.
Videotaping: During the Science Café, we may capture video of the presentation and a selection of interactions between the audience and speaker. The video may be posted on various web resources, in presentations, or other educational opportunities that will solely be used for the aims of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute and Community Engagement.
Broadcasting: During the Science Café, we may stream the presentation and interactions between the audience and speaker. Only those in attendance (speaker and audience) will be able to view the interactions.
By attending the Science Cafe, your consent for photos, videos, or broadcasting is implied. If you do not wish to be in photos, videos, or broadcasting please inform a staff or faculty member when checking in at the registration table.
Publication or White Paper: The themes that come from the Science Cafe could be used in possible future publications or white papers. No direct quotations or identifiable information will be used for publication.
Goals
- Strengthen science literacy.
- Transfer knowledge between a translational researchers and an inquisitive public.
- Demonstrate the important role science plays in society.
- Demonstrate the important role the community plays in science.
- Create opportunities for CTSI of Southeast Wisconsin faculty, staff, students and public to engage one another on health related issues in an environment outside an academic setting.
- Inspire the public to be more comfortable interacting with scientific and/or medical experts.
- Inspire scientific and/or medical experts to be more comfortable discussing science and health issues with the public.
- Create environment for community to teach CTSI faculty about issues around community literacy and applicability.
Health and Scientific Literacy
Our foundation is built on two specific concepts: health literacy and scientific literacy.
We choose to define health literacy as the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.1 And scientific literacy as the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity.2
1 Ratzan SC, Parker RM. 2000. Introduction. In: National Library of Medicine Current Bibilographies in Medicine: Health Literacy. Selden CT, Zorn M, Ratzan SC, Parker RM, Editors. NLM Pub. No. CBM 2000-1. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
2 National Science Education Standards, pg. 22 http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses assessed on 1/14/2013.
Supported By
Science Cafés are supported by the CTSI Community Engagement Program within the Institute for Health and Society and is funded in part by Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Research and Education Initiative Fund, a component of the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin endowment at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
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Brought to you by CTSI’s Community Engagement Program.
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