CODING : Making cross curriculum connections with CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

Who says engineers are simply maths nerds?

Meet Andrew King, Australian engineer and children’s author of the Engibear Series.

ENGIBEAR is the character invented by Andrew  who was seeking to engage young children with engineering concepts such as bridges, railways and robotics. He has developed a website and a series of books featuring the cute character, Engibear. The hardback books are also available as iBooks on the iBookstore. Titles currently available include : Engibear’s Dream and Engibear’s Bridge.

In the case of Engibear’s Dream, Engibear dreams of designs and starts building a Bearbot to help him at work. Early versions fail - often spectacularly. However, Engibear keeps trying. Follow Engibear as his designs improve and the amazing Bearbot takes shape. The book features beautifully detailed drawings and provides a perfect illustration of the design process in action - Dream, Design, Debug (test), Re-design. Download Engibear's Dream from the iBookstore https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/engibears-dream/id585155857?mt=11

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HELLO RUBY ADVENTURES IN CODING by Linda Liukis. 

Meet Ruby a small girl with a big imagination. Ruby and her animal friends all have secret superpowers. In Ruby’s case, she can” imagine impossible things”. “Ruby’s world has rules and reason, repetition and rhythm, ridicules and riddles and one can build something out of nothing.” 

Ruby's adventures celebrate the fact that computer coding is in fact a creative activity which has narrative at its centre. 

The book and the associated app and online presence have been under development for some time now and the book will soon be available from October 2015. In the meantime check out the website and perhaps pre-order your own copy of the book.