Who Are We?
Critical Thinkers. Troublemakers. Visionaries. Leaders. Scientists. Journalists. Artists. The Future, Now.
What Do We Do?
MadSciMag staff serve as ambassadors to our communities, sharing and translating critical knowledge about health, the environment, and economic justice to our families, friends and the world.
How does one join the MadSciMag Staff?
First, staff are trained to inform others what’s really going on in the world, equipped with the scientific and journalistic methods. We teach this through the MadScience Media Initiative, a nine-week, action-packed investigative boot-camp for young science reporters in training.
The Training Regimen:
Week One: Mission Briefing and media literacy assignment – understanding how to read and construct a story.
Week Two: Research Methods – conducting online and in-person research.
Week Three: The Scientific Method – learning best practices and limits of research, and communicating data via infographics.
Week Four: Critical thinking – compare and contrast different media coverage and develop questions to minimize bias.
Week Five: Writing and video editing – interviewing key scientists in pairs.
Week Six: Developing the multimedia story in four teams: research, writing, video and design.
Week Seven: Follow-up research and preliminary video, writing edits.
Week Eight: Final edits – wild audio, music, voice-overs for video; final clean-up and citations for feature articles.
Week Nine: Project completion. Teens, parents, mentors and community members gather for a pizza party and interactive presentation of MadSciMag (Mad Science Magazine), resulting in a multi-generational conversation about the content these teens have explored and shared.
We’ve just completed our pilot program, and are preparing curricula for our Spring Issue, on the Hidden Sugars in Food. Contact us if you would like to contribute, or if you would like to see MadSciMag come to your community.
About Our Parent Organization:
BetterBio engages people in creating meaningful and truthful science journalism without interference from financial, ideological, or political interests. Our mission is to empower disenfranchised communities typically ignored by existing media outlets with the information they need to lead healthy and successful lives and to help place that information in context. BetterBio’s strategy combines media and education, serving three major target audiences: teens, parents, and patients.
