The popular Café Scientifique model has proven to be effective for communicating science to a high school teen audience. The process for achieving effective science communication between scientist-presenters and teens focuses on overcoming the “information deficit” mode of presentation that most scientists are trained for. Coaching for this process stresses that effective science communication requires engagement on a personal level that meets the audience where it is in terms of both prior knowledge and social context, while making connections to the teens’ daily lives. Scientist-presenters report strong satisfaction with the coaching process and the resulting quality of science communication.
