Annual Report

We are fortunate to have National Science Foundation funding to support our community of teen science cafés, the Teen Science Café Network. NSF requires an annual report summarizing activities at cafés across the network. In order for the National Resource Center to compile this report, each Network member is required to submit an annual report of its café activities by June 30. 

How do I submit our café’s annual report?

The Annual Report Form will be distributed via email each May/June.  It is formatted as a simple online survey that you can complete.

What will I be asked in the annual report?

You are asked for basic data on your café events, attendance and demographics. You are also asked a few questions about your interactions with the Network members and any big successes and struggles you might have had this past year.

This PDF of the form shows the information you will be asked to report.

We strongly recommend that each café has a system for tracking the data asked for in the report throughout the year.  By organizing the information throughout the café season, you have a draft of what will become the final report.

Who should complete the annual report?

Only one adult leader from each café needs to fill out the report.  The person who has most day-to-day interaction with the café, teens, and events is usually the best person to answer the questions.

What happens to the information in our annual report?

The information from member annual reports will be aggregated in the annual report submitted to NSF; the report will be placed on this website for the benefit of members throughout the Network. 

We also typically host a webinar in the late summer to share a “state of the Network,” so you can learn how you fit into the picture of all teen science cafés.  No individual café’s report can be identified from the data we share.

By collecting this participation data about your program, you will have the information to report on reach of your program.

How do I track this kind of data throughout the year?

A good way to collect some of the basic data requested  is by having each teen attendee fill out registration card at each café session. Registration cards can be used to gather contact information of attendees, get grade level and school information to determine where advertising is working, and show the frequency of attendance of any one person. As an incentive for the teens to fill out the cards, they can be used to select a small door prize at the end of the session.

Routinely collecting information on your café attendance is much easier if you set up a data collection tool at the beginning. Below are links to some tools that may prove useful to you:

• A registration card or sign-up sheet can be filled out by each attendee of a café event.
• You can enter that information in a simple spreadsheet or google sheet to accumulate attendance data through the café season. It also allows you to track repeat attendees.
• Remind (http://remind.com) is useful both for reminding teens about upcoming cafés and allowing them to submit the data you need in advance of the café event.
• Qualtrics (http://qualtrics.com), Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com), Alchemer (alchemer.com) and Google Forms are all survey tools that can be adapted to café data collection. Some programs have used iPads to collect teen attendance data.

Some of these demographics seem personal.  Any advice about collecting data about identity?

Because gender identity and racial/ethnic identity is very personal, we recommend allowing teens to privately report this information.  You should also tell them why you’re asking (to know more about who is participating).  And you should always give them the option of not sharing this information if they are not comfortable.

Gathering data sounds great!  Any ideas about getting feedback beyond demographics?

Comment cards can provide feedback on the expectations and satisfaction of the audience about topics, styles of presentations, hands-on activities, length of the program, and quality of the venue. Example registration and comment cards can be found in the Getting Started Toolkit in the Resources section of the Network website. These cards can be customized to collect the full range of information a program wishes.

You can see a past Teen Science Café webinar that discussed a variety of creative ways to collect teen demographic data and feedback easily – and sometimes in a fun way!

If you need assistance, contact the National Resource Center at info@teensciencecafe.org.