Science is all over the news at the moment, and as far as Cafe Sci is concerned this can only be a good thing. Regardless of whether you believe the creation of synthetic life in a lab is cause for celebration or despair, most people appreciate it's an absolutely incredible achievement. This kind of controversial, cutting edge and future-shaping science is exactly why Cafe Sci exists. The science curriculum is a wonder thing, the framework we use to develop our understanding of how, where and why our world (and beyond!) works. But occasionally this framework can seem inflexible and get in the way of covering 'hot off the press' topics which students are keen to hear about. As an extra curricular activity, Cafe Sci gives teachers and students the time and space to explore these issues - with an expert thrown in for good measure!
As I touched on briefly in my welcome to the last newsletter, Cafe Sci is yet again experiencing massive change. Like many other organisations at the moment, there's no certainty of a long, or even short term, future for Cafe Sci. As our current funding period comes to an end, we've reached a point of reflection and evaluation. There's light on the horizon in the form of potential funding from Europe, but we need to think carefully about how best to take the project forward and indeed if we should go forward at all. This is where we require your help: we recently sent out a short survey to all our teachers and would like to thank everyone who has already returned it. We'd love to receive more completed surveys so please let us know if you need us to issue the link again. For our non-teacher supporters, we would also welcome your input into our future - please feel free to drop me line if you have any suggestions, ideas or criticisms.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sarah-Jane
