Audio Transcript

[00:00:00]
Announcer: You’re listening to the Fizzics Ed Podcast. For hundreds of ideas, free experiments and more, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. And now, here’s your host, Ben Newsome:

[00:00:18]
Ben Newsome: Welcome again to another Fizzics Ed Podcast. Glad to have you again for another chat around science, STEM, and all that sort of thing. This week is no different. We’re hanging out with Mark Holmes, who is an educational publisher through Yara Media. They’ve been making this really cool magazine called Just Kidding, which reaches hundreds of thousands of kids. They actually circulate 220,000 copies of this kids’ magazine to kids right across Australia, and certainly 800 primary schools very much use it.

[00:00:50]
Ben Newsome: I was really interested to find out what the educational learning themes actually sit within this magazine, considering so many kids read this thing. I can tell you what, there are lots of outcomes, especially as you hear what Mark’s got to say through this chat. So, a little bit different this week, but have a think about how this might be useful with using print media and getting kids into not just science, but frankly, just literacy. That is definitely something down Mark’s alley. So let’s get right into the chat.

[00:01:21]
Announcer: This is the Fizzics Ed Podcast. We’re all about science, ed tech and more. To see 100 fun free experiments you can do with your class, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. That’s physics spelled F I Z Z I C S and click 100 free experiments.

[00:01:46]
Mark Holmes: Basically, I started this 19 years ago. I used to work for Channel Nine, and I sat down one day and went, “You know what? I can’t do this commuting into the Melbourne city anymore.” So I needed to do something else, and I came up with this weird and wonderful idea, which was to launch a newspaper for kids that they could get involved in and get reading and so on and so forth. I found back in those days, kids weren’t really reading that much, so we wanted to give them something that they could really hang onto and have something tangible that they could flick through and find all the latest info and news and sports and entertainment, all of those kind of things. So that’s why we launched Just Kidding.

[00:02:31]
Mark Holmes: Since then, it was a very small black and white newspaper back then that was completely free of charge, and that’s been our motto ever since day dot. We started then at 20,000 circulation, I think it was, just in Victoria, and we’re now at 225,000 circulation every month, and that goes national.

[00:02:55]
Ben Newsome: Wow.

[00:02:56]
Mark Holmes: Yeah, it’s huge, and it’s only grown by that kind of domino effect. Teachers have told other teachers, who have told other teachers, or kids have told mums, who have told teachers. What happens is that schools contact us and say, “Well, we want this free of charge resource for our school. How many copies can we get?” And we supply them. That’s what we do. So it’s been a great 19 years, and long may it continue.

[00:03:21]
Ben Newsome: It reminds me of a friend of mine who said, “If it’s free, it’s for me!”

[00:03:26]
Mark Holmes: Exactly right. That’s right, exactly right. For kids, it’s really important because they don’t want to spend their hard-earned pocket money on going out and buying a magazine. So if we supply it for free, then that’s great for them.

[00:03:43]
Ben Newsome: Well, this is one of the things I wanted to have a chat with you about because there are lots of magazines out there, and let’s be honest, it’s crazy. You couldn’t possibly read everything that comes out every week; it’s just not going to happen. But of course, having decent content that kids can not only just engage with but actually understand is actually a major thing. Obviously, as a kids’ magazine, you’ve got all these different sections and categories for all these different interests. And yet I went, “You know what? There’s so much in here.” I’m a science educator; we do the STEM thing. I think, “You know what? There’s so much that’s in this, especially that it’s free and circulated 225,000 a week. That’s a lot of kids reading.” There’s a lot in there that could really have that education bent no matter what you do. Walk us through what’s actually in the magazine.

[00:04:39]
Mark Holmes: Okay, well, we start off with entertainment, so we deal with all the movie companies—Disney, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Paramount, all of those. So we do spread a lot of love as far as movies are concerned. We find that kids are really wanting that kind of content. I suppose we’re really careful with the content that we put in the magazine itself. So there’s no fast food, no junk food, no M-rated material, which means M-rated games or M-rated movies or programmes. So we’re really careful about the people that we actually partner with.

[00:05:23]
Mark Holmes: As far as movies are concerned, we then move on to books, we’ve got toys, and we have a whole heap of what we call junior journalists, who are actually our readers aged 7 to 13 years. These kids help us actually provide the stories back into the magazine. We send them out toys or books or whatever it might be. They test those, do a report, that report comes back to us, we put that back in the magazine, and then kids obviously read the reports that come back from other kids. So it’s really a magazine for kids written by kids, which is great. That’s what we’re all about.

[00:06:05]
Mark Holmes: Other content includes science experiments—perfect for yourselves, of course—book reviews, competitions, puzzles, activities. Then the most important part is that we are curriculum aligned. So what that means is we talk to our teachers—of which we’ve got about 830 schools around the country at the moment—and we talk to them every quarter and we say, “What are your learning themes coming up for Term 2 or Term 3 or Term 4?” We get those most common themes, whatever they tell us, and that content goes back into the magazine. So we research it, we produce teachers’ notes for it, and the teachers’ notes go out with the magazine into the school so that teachers can pick it up and have this learning resource for them all laid out without any research.

[00:07:13]
Ben Newsome: The thing about this, what’s really cool about it—I mean, it sounds like on the cover people go, “Why is this science guy talking to a person that has all these movies and books?” and I can tell you right now there’s so much stuff in there for sure. A past episode guest, Jillian King-Cargile, who does this really cool stuff called STEM Read out of Northern Illinois University, whereby they just do—it’s almost like a book club, but what they do is they talk about what was the science within the book and what was it real, was it false, is it futurism, is it not, are we making stuff up? You could do that with movies, you could do that with art, you could do that with a cake baking; I mean, there’s procedural thinking. All that stuff is in there. You could totally do this. The thing is, the kids are kind of learning without realising it.

[00:08:11]
Mark Holmes: Correct. And as long as you make it in their own context and put it in their own words, it’s fantastic. The response we’ve had from parents specifically and also kids, you know, we’ve had so many parents come back to us saying, “You know, you’re actually making my son or my daughter read. They actually enjoy reading again,” which is fantastic because in today’s day and age where it’s all technology—and of course, it is—it’s good to have that tangible newspaper look and feel where, you

[00:08:11]
Mark Holmes: …know, the kids can own it and take responsibility for it and turn the page and read what’s interesting to them. But we try and make it in their language so that it’s really easy for them to understand.

[00:08:24]
Ben Newsome: One of the things I like about it is that you’ve got this national writing competition. Now, writing is intimately linked with, funnily enough, literacy. You’ve got to actually have it. But it’s that it’s got that creative bent. And I suppose you could almost set like challenges—I’m not exactly completely exactly sure how you write your writers’ competition—but I was thinking that you’ve got

so many different categories. You could choose all sorts of things and go, “Guys, this is the thing this time. Write, go, see you on June 30th,” or whenever it’s due. That would be a lot of fun. How does that go? Do all the schools get involved with that?

[00:08:58]
Mark Holmes: Yeah, it is. We started this about three years ago. Again, we used to have a pen pal section in the magazine itself. We stopped that many years ago because of certain logistics, which were a nightmare, actually

…but then we kind of came up with one of our partners, which is Penguin Random House, and spoke to them and said, “Look, you know, we really want to get kids to write and produce short stories,” and they were all for it. So we teamed up with them and they supplied some mentors for the programme. So this year, I know it’s Tim Harris and some other people there that, you know, they will come back and give us some ideas and tips for the kids to actually write and read. And then the actual prize at the end of the day is that they’ll have their story turned into a real-life book, which is very cool. So, you know, that’s really good because it’s an incentive for the kids and they love that

[00:09:33]
Ben Newsome: That’s cool. You’ve just reminded me of, and I don’t know if they still exist, but in California, I believe, there was a group called Science Castle. In fact, we’ve got listeners all over the globe and I know there’s quite a people in the US. So if you do remember Science Castle, let me know. But I mean, that was ages ago. What they were doing

[00:09:33]
Ben Newsome: … this is really cool. The person would film a series of science experiments in his garage and you’d have a story written to it, but he wouldn’t finish the last chapter. And what he’d get the kids to do is get the kids to then write back to him about what would the chapter be and, more importantly, how would the next experiment weave into the story? And the kid that did the best chapter, they

[00:09:59]
Ben Newsome: …actually publish that thing and send it out to everyone. And I thought that was so wickedly cool. I don’t know if they’re still going, but it was a really interesting concept. Maybe it’s something I’ll have to get on top of. It was cool.

[00:10:11]
Mark Holmes: You’ve now got my brain working now, so now I’m going to run with that.

[00:10:15]
Ben Newsome: No, you can go for it! This is the thing—this is meant to be a sharing space. Having that writing competition is really cool. You could almost, especially during this whole COVID thing, you could almost—I mean, your authors, depending on their time, be able

to meet with the kids and they get to hear from et cetera, et cetera, get advice. But then I mean, there are obviously with child protection with video-to-face, but you could have a vlog series, you could have kids writing things, and that could be quite interesting.

[00:10:37]
Mark Holmes: It could actually, yeah, very much so. Yeah, our three mentors we’ve got Elisa Darlington and Tim Harris and Gavin Ongthan. Gavin does the Super Sidekicks series, and I think Tim does Tuffle Towers and Elisa does The League

Of Llamas. So they’re very experienced, but they’re very experienced in the kids’ category, so they’re very good at talking to kids. And I know they’re going to be doing some videos that they’re going to send out to us so that we can show the kids and say, “Look, here are some tips and ideas to get your stories collected.”

[00:10:53]
Mark Holmes: We’ve had, I think so far, it launched four and a half, five weeks ago. We’ve had 195 stories in

[00:10:53]
Mark Holmes: …far with three months left to go for the closing deadline. So we’re expecting well over a thousand entries to come through. And that’s pretty good considering we’re talking three categories—seven and eight-year-olds, and then nine and 10, and then 11 and 12. So we’ve got three separate categories there that kids can enter. But again, it’s just getting kids to use their imagination and, you know, just sit down and come up with their storyline and their characters and that’s,

[00:11:02]
Mark Holmes: …we love that kind of stuff here.

[00:11:04]
Ben Newsome: And this is the thing, and I’m just thinking about, because we really are—there are so many rabbit holes I could go down here. Like

…you’ve got an entire section on gaming and we had a guest, a really good friend of ours, Claire Seldon from the Department of Education in New South Wales. She is right into gamification, she’s right into learning design and all that sort of thing. Gaming really is a massive hook for learning. Just straight up. I mean, what sort of things have you talked about in there? Sort of like the classic Hasbro type things on—I don’t know—what do you get into with that?

[00:11:32]
Mark Holmes: Are we talking

[00:11:32]
Mark Holmes: …video games or physical games?

[00:11:36]
Ben Newsome: Either.

[00:11:38]
Mark Holmes: We’re, I mean we do, we love toys. And most of our partners are the big toy companies so the Hasbros and Mattels and Mooses and all of those kind of people. And those people over the recent time, over the last three months, we’ve been really talking about games quite a lot because of course with the whole COVID thing where everyone’s been locked inside. And I know that over, I don’t know about the rest of the world, but in Australia, as you may know, board games sold out over here at

[00:12:05]
Mark Holmes: …the beginning of COVID. There were no board games to be seen on the shelves. It was incredible.

[00:12:09]
Ben Newsome: Probably a cool thing to do because I mean we all grew up with those.

[00:12:13]
Mark Holmes: Oh, absolutely. And they’re still going today—you know, the **Connect 4s** and the **Scrabbles** and the **Monopolys**. They’re still going today, and there’s some new spins on those. But again, we love board games because it gets families together, which in today’s day and age doesn’t happen that often. So the good thing, if there is a good thing about COVID—and there’s not—is that it’s brought families closer together from what we can see and we love hearing reports from mum and dad saying, “Yeah, we sat down and had a games night

[00:12:35]
Mark Holmes: …last Friday, we brought out all the old games and we played **Scrabble** together or played **Monopoly** together or whatever it might be. We had great fun.

[00:12:46]
Ben Newsome: Oh,

seriously! My mum taught me grid references using **Battleship**.

[00:12:51]
Mark Holmes: Yes, I used to love **Battleship**.

[00:12:53]
Ben Newsome: And actually I was reminiscing about a week or two ago amongst friends,

we realised it’s been years since we played **Yahtzee**. And you think about all the mathematical concepts that come out of that, there’s a heap of it. I mean, I kind of wonder, whoever designed it, were they math teachers sliding it into us?

[00:13:12]
Mark Holmes: Maybe, maybe they were. It’s still going today, **Yahtzee**. You can still buy it.

[00:13:18]
Ben Newsome: Oh, there you go.

[00:13:20]
Mark Holmes: There you are. It’s still going today. But I love board games. I think board games are a terrific idea, especially for families.

[00:13:23]
Ben Newsome: It sounds like 19 years ago you started on a thing that—did you think you’d be going this long?

[00:13:28]
Mark Holmes: No. Absolutely not. To be honest with you, I thought we’d

[00:13:28]
Mark Holmes: …be going 12 months. And I did this purely to get myself out of the hustle and bustle of driving into Melbourne every morning and driving back. Because it was a two-hour trip every morning and a two-hour trip every night and I went, “No, you know, this is an idea I’ve got, let’s just do it, see if it works.” And luckily, it did. So 19 years later, we’re going stronger than ever.

[00:13:53]
Mark Holmes: And it’s strange because today’s day and age with technology as it is, magazines really don’t get a good push anymore. It’s all gone online. So to have a product that we are producing that kids absolutely love and still love, and parents enjoy and appreciate, and the teachers enjoy and appreciate, it’s so rewarding for us and that’s just been a great thing.

[00:14:17]
Ben Newsome: No, it’s awesome. And one of the things that you’ve released recently is the Bite Size thing, which I think is really cool. Not just because we got involved, thank you very much for inviting us, but it was—it’s also the, I mean, just deep diving into people’s lives. I mean, the one that grabbed my mind was the one with the beekeeper.

[00:14:36]
Mark Holmes: Yes, Ben. Yes.

[00:14:38]
Ben Newsome: And it’s just really cool because one thing to hear about what an apiarist does, but actually hearing about why they do it and how they got into it and seeing how kids could think about how they could get into it too, I think that’s really neat.

[00:14:47]
Mark Holmes: Yeah, I think so too. Bite Size came about, we were basically sat here going, “Well, we can’t get a magazine out there to schools right now because schools are shut. What the hell can we do for kids that keeps them still entertained?” So we came up with, “Well, let’s do Just Kidding Bite Size,” which is just a pack that kids or parents can download every single day or every single week. Different topic each time, so frogs, Australian geography, dinosaurs, Aztec, whatever it might be. And they can just go in there, download the pack. It will have some activities and some puzzles and some facts and some trivia.

[00:15:19]
Mark Holmes: So we’ve been doing that, and that’s something we’re going to continue doing for quite a while. Every single week we’ll update it, and hopefully by the end of a year, we’re aiming for around four or five hundred packs to be up online for kids to access for nothing, completely free.

[00:15:32]
Ben Newsome: Wow. Is that something that you’re going to end up putting in the thing that goes out to the schools and whatnot? Because I’m just looking—I’ve got it right in front of me here—you’ve got a section on dinosaurs, the Ancient Egypt thing, there’s so much in there that—I mean, okay, right—Five Senses. Name me a K-to-2 teacher that doesn’t do Five Senses. They all do. And honestly, Year 3 to 6 is always space, stars and planets and Earth, Sun, Moon turns up in there as well. These are totally something that kids could read as part of their curriculum scope and sequence, without doubt.

[00:16:05]
Mark Holmes: Absolutely no question whatsoever. And that’s what we’re doing. So it’s all about getting hold of those common themes that we’re looking at and going, “You know, that’s going to be of interest to the kids, it’s educational, it’s of interest to the teachers, there’s value in it.” So I know the next one for next week we’re doing automation, and then we’re doing aviation, and we’re doing Life Beneath the Sea is going to be a massive focus for us. But aviation for next week as well, there’s going to be a big pack up for that, about 12 pages, and that’s just full of facts and, you know, how does a plane take off? What is thrust? And all of these things. So we’re nearly there on that, so I’m looking forward to next week, to be honest.

[00:16:43]
Ben Newsome: It’s one of the weird ones. Like, we teach a programme on flight and understanding there are four basic forces that are acting on a wing. And you understand it, but whilst you’re sitting in this several-hundred-tonne plane going, “I understand it, but…” it’s kind of a funny thing.

[00:17:01]
Mark Holmes: “How is it staying up in the air?”

[00:17:02]
Ben Newsome: Exactly! And that “how” point—I love that whole “why.” That’s the whole point, and that’s exactly why the science thing comes in, it’s so important. And just knowing that a lift-out section, for example, on the oceans—I mean, this year’s theme is “Deep Blue: Oceans.” It’s actually National Science Week’s theme in August. That is a very easy thing for kids to use to build out more, whatever they want to do, whether it’s a science experiment or a report. It allows them to at least have a hook, a scaffold to build off. It’s great.

[00:17:31]
Mark Holmes: Absolutely. And the Just Kidding August issue will have a massive section all to do with Science Week and to do with Life Beneath the Sea and oceans, so we’re dedicating the magazine virtually to that. So that’s going to be great.

[00:17:45]
Ben Newsome: Wow. So I mean, obviously, you were born in Melbourne—effectively, the magazine was born in Melbourne.

[00:17:49]
Mark Holmes: The magazine was born in Melbourne. I was born in Oxford.

[00:17:51]
Ben Newsome: Oh, there you go then. We’re all from all over here. But the magazine was born in Melbourne, but I suspect now, especially now you’re digital, I imagine you’re having people read this around the world.

[00:18:04]
Mark Holmes: We are actually, yeah. It’s quite surprising. I can go in and see all the stats of where people actually access, and it is all round the world, which is quite amazing. So I suppose for us now, it’s a case of sitting down and then generating material that no matter who accesses it around the world can access it and go, “Oh, yeah, that’s relevant to me.” It’s not just Australia. Yeah, hence the reason this Bite Size works so well. So long may that continue, and it will.

[00:18:32]
Ben Newsome: One of the things about Bite Size, it really is—it’s got that initial thought seed being put into kids’ heads about potential careers. I mean, I kind of wonder, if you were invited into a school and you had a hundred kids in the room, and the whole point was—

[00:18:48]
Mark Holmes: That’s happened.

[00:18:51]
Ben Newsome: It has happened! Cool. So what did you say? Because I was going to ask you that, what do you say?

[00:18:55]
Mark Holmes: Well, it’s an interesting one. I sometimes I do get asked by schools to come in and talk about, you know, media, for an example. How is a magazine put together? How do you actually put this together? What’s point A to B? And how does it work? So I do go into schools occasionally and sit down with the kids and talk to the kids for about 20 minutes, half an hour, about, you know, this is the process involved in making a magazine. We don’t just have a photocopier in a room and press a button. These are the entire processes from woe to go. And it’s a really interesting time to sit down and look at the kids who are really taking this all in. In fact, we’ve had many kids come up to us saying, “That’s what I’m going to do when I grow up. I’m going to be just like you, I’m going to be a journalist, I’m going to be this, I’m going to be that.” Which is fantastic.

[00:19:40]
Mark Holmes: But I suppose it’s just coming to kids on their level and making them entertained and making them happy and making them feel good. It’s always good. I mean, I love what I do right now, I really do love what I do. And I’ve had a few careers over my time, but this is by far my favourite. I’m never going to give it up.

[00:20:01]
Ben Newsome: Seriously, and those publishing tools, regardless, are so handy. If you hear someone saying, “I’m just going to be an engineer, I’m going to be a scientist, I don’t need this stuff,” trust me, you do. Because you’ve got to produce your reports, you’ve got to produce—honestly, I’m talking on a podcast. I didn’t know how to do a podcast a couple of years ago. No idea. It’s a form of media. And understanding how to publish content, especially if you want to be a science communicator—I mean, that’s often part of those courses, it’s not just be the boffin and understand the science, it’s communicating the science in multiple mediums.

[00:20:32]
Mark Holmes: I totally agree with you.

[00:20:34]
Ben Newsome: And that’s what Just Kidding—it’s beautifully arranged and all the rest. But there’s cartoons, someone had to make them.

[00:20:40]
Mark Holmes: Correct. That’s right, absolutely. We’ve got a very talented team here. So they are part of our family, I suppose, from day one. One of our design guys, our main design guy, has been here for—how long’s he been with me now?—12 years he’s been with me now. And he’s just a genius. He can develop these great concepts and designs that make kids go, “Wow, that looks interesting for me to read, I want to interact with that, that’s for me.” And I suppose everything we do in the magazine is more advertorial—there’s no straight ads in there. Whatever we do, we turn it, we flip it, and we make it entertaining for the kids. We always give it a spin. And that’s what the kids love.

[00:21:25]
Ben Newsome: Actually, I’ve got to ask, only because I’m always curious on this side. Bite Size has only just been launched, and I know the analytic side of things isn’t completely formed yet. But at the same point, there’s got to be some really popular ones that people just keep on hammering. They keep going, “I love that, I love that, I love that,” they keep downloading. Is it the recipes that go off more? Is it the science? Is it about animals? Is it the puzzles? What is it that people go, “You know what, this is honestly just the thing that everyone seems to want to use?”

[00:21:53]
Mark Holmes: Yeah, absolutely. The biggest one that we’ve had so far has been Animal Extremes, which are all about extreme animals and **Humpback Whales** and enormous whales and **Blue Whales** and all of those kind of things, super-sized snakes and super-small bats. And that’s been the most popular by far. So we have done a couple of animal-based Bite Size packs.

[00:22:21]
Mark Holmes: Cool. The Helpful Bees was was really, really positive when we launched that one too. But again, I think animals and experiments seems to be the way to go. Recipes are there, but definitely experiments and animals seem to be the way to go from what we can see.

Ben Newsome: Yeah, absolutely. And also those little factoids. Like I was—we ran a show a while—a few years ago on whales and we actually put in things like the science of—this is a real thing—whale snot. It’s a thing. And actually the vortex rings that happen especially when—there’s video of these huge two-metre-wide vortex rings rising up out of the surface. And how does a vortex ring even form? It’s kind of like—sometimes the peripheral little factoids produce the interest, and then once you’ve got the interest, then you go into the main detail. It’s a lot of fun.

[00:23:08]
Mark Holmes: Correct. Yeah, that’s right. Absolutely. And we’re all about putting lots of little fun facts in there. So lots of short things, nothing huge. We don’t want mountains of material there for kids to try and wade through. It’s all about being short and factual. And those things are cool to watch, too. So the one thing we’re trying to come up with now is to have video content linked in to the printable material that we’re putting up online. So kids can get their printed material, sit down in front of their computer and go through it, and then watch what’s on the screen as well to go with the facts that we’re providing them.

[00:23:42]
Ben Newsome: Oh, fantastic. Look, speaking of which, we’ve mentioned it enough times, but people may not know where to go.

[00:23:48]
Mark Holmes: Ah, yes. Haven’t said that. Very easy. They just jump onto justkidding.com.au. And if they want to go to Bite Size, they can either click on the Bite Size link up the top of the page

[00:23:59]
Mark Holmes: …there or they can go justkidding.com.au/bitesize and Bite Size is actually spelled B-Y-T-E-S-I-Z-E. So not B-I, B-Y.

[00:24:11]
Ben Newsome: That’s right. A bit of a nod to the computer scientist people out there.

[00:24:14]
Mark Holmes: Yes, exactly right. Absolutely.

[00:24:16]
Ben Newsome: No, very good. Look, thank you very much for taking the time out, especially on a Friday afternoon when it’s almost time to kick back, though I don’t know if you ever really kick back when you’re doing these sorts of things.

[00:24:25]
Mark Holmes: No, I don’t think you ever do. No, I think it’s good, actually. I don’t like kicking back as well. I’m a full-on kind of keep going kind of guy, so. But no, lovely to talk to you, absolutely Friday afternoon. It’s been great.

[00:24:36]
Ben Newsome: Much appreciated. Have a fantastic weekend and we might catch you another time.

[00:24:39]
Mark Holmes: Oh, we look forward to it.

[00:24:42]
Announcer: We hope you’ve been enjoying the Fizzics Ed Podcast. We love making science make sense. Why don’t you book us for a science show or workshop in your school? If you’re outside of Australia, you can connect with us via a virtual excursion. See our website for more.

[00:24:58]
Ben Newsome: Well, there we go, we’ve just heard from Mark Holmes. You can really tell he loves his media. He loves getting kids into literacy, that’s very much the case. And I think this Just Kidding thing might be handy if you’re a primary teacher. So, head on over to justkidding.com.au, check out what they’ve got on offer and, well, see what you can implement. I bet you can find a few things there that’ll be definitely worth kids looking into their own projects, and there’s certainly some science spins you can get into. So, well done Mark, love your work.

[00:25:30]
Ben Newsome: So, look, that’s again another episode of the Fizzics Ed Podcast. As usual we’ve got more episodes coming up. I hope you’re having a fantastic day or night or whatever it is you’re getting up to, and I will catch you another time.

[00:25:38]
Announcer: You’ve been listening to another Fizzics Ed Podcast. We’re excited about science. Subscribe to us on iTunes to download the next episode as soon as it’s released. And don’t forget, for hundreds of ideas, free experiments, our new Be Amazing book and more, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. That’s physics spelled F I Z Z I C S.

[00:26:05]
Announcer: This podcast is part of the Australian Educators Online Network. AEON.net.au.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the primary goal of Just Kidding magazine?

The magazine aims to encourage literacy and a love for reading among children aged 7–13. By providing high-interest content that balances entertainment with educational themes, it seeks to engage both confident and reluctant readers in a way that feels accessible and fun.

How does the magazine ensure its content is suitable for a classroom environment?

Just Kidding is strictly curriculum-aligned. The editorial team constantly researches and develops core educational learning themes in collaboration with education experts. Additionally, each issue is accompanied by specific teacher notes to facilitate seamless in-class learning and student engagement.

What kind of topics are covered to engage reluctant readers?

The publication uses an “edutainment” approach, blending heavy-hitting educational topics like STEM, history, and social issues with high-interest areas such as sports, exclusive celebrity interviews, the latest movie news, and interactive competitions.

How widely is Just Kidding distributed across Australia?

It is Australia’s largest kids’ magazine in circulation. It is distributed to over 800 primary schools across the country, with a reach of approximately 220,000 copies per issue, making it a significant part of the national youth media landscape.

Why is the age group 7–13 specifically targeted for this publication?

This age bracket is a critical window for developing lifelong reading habits. By providing content that appeals to both boys and girls during their primary school years, the magazine helps bridge the gap between early literacy and more advanced reading comprehension.

Discussion points summarised from the Encouraging literacy with Just Kidding with AI assistance, verified and edited by Ben Newsome CF

Extra thought ideas to consider

The Power of Edutainment in the Classroom

Non-traditional texts, such as magazines, can significantly lower the barrier to entry for reluctant readers. By utilizing topics students are already passionate about, such as gaming, movies, or Science, educators can introduce curriculum-aligned concepts in a format that feels less daunting than a standard textbook.

This approach helps to foster a positive association with reading, proving that literacy is not just a school requirement but a gateway to exploring one’s own interests and hobbies.

Bridging the Gap Between Home and School Literacy

Distributing educational materials directly through schools for home consumption creates a vital link in a child’s learning journey. When a student receives a magazine at school that they are genuinely excited to read at home, it reinforces the idea that learning is a continuous process that extends beyond the classroom walls.

This model also ensures that high-quality, educational reading material reaches households that may not otherwise have easy access to such resources, promoting equity in literacy development.