The Why Files / National Institute For Science Education
(Please note: In 2016, The Why Files stopped producing its magazine. It remains on the web, however, functioning only as an archive, as they do not produce any more original material.)
The Why Files is an award-winning website that reveals the science behind the news. Founded in 1996 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the auspices of National Institute for Science Education with support from the National Science Foundation. The Why Files is supported and published by the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Each week The Why Files delivers accurate information in an engaging way to a diverse audience.
The mission of The Why Files is to explore the science, math and technology behind the news of the day, and to present those topics in a clear, accessible and accurate manner. The Why Files covers science at all institutions that engage in scientific exploration and discovery, and they hope to explain the relationship between science and daily life.
The Why Files produced a new story each week, alternating longer features with shorter shorties. They post a series of interactive science animations, the ever-popular “Cool Science Images,” a series of Teacher Activity Pages linked to the national science teaching standards, The Weather Guys, and Curiosities.