Chase Roberts Is Back with Another Educational Engineering Book, This Time for "Big Babies"
2021's hottest — and only — interactive book for teaching toddlers Boolean logic now has a successor, to keep the learning going.
Computer engineer turned baby-educator Chase Roberts is back with another interactive tome designed to get the youngest of learners thinking about electronic logic: Computer Engineering for big Babies.
"CE for Big Babies is the next step for continuing your education, and putting you and your kids in the good graces of the General Intelligence AI that is sure to take the world," Roberts writes of his highly anticipated sequel. "The book picks up where the original CE for Babies left off. And, like the first book, it's way too short with six pages."
Roberts launched the original Computer Engineering for Babies back in August 2021, the end product of a six-year process of prototyping and design. Like its more advanced sequel, the book used integrated electronics to teach core computing concepts — basic Boolean logic gates — page-by-page, with large arcade-style buttons for little fingers to press.
The book proved a smash hit, raising almost $250,000 from more than 5,000 backers over the course of the crowdfunding campaign. Now, two years on, Roberts has written — and engineered — a follow-up, taking into consideration lessons learned from the first campaign.
"The first edition Computer Engineering for Babies book got a lot of great feedback and suggestions," Roberts says. "The original position of the light sensors wasn't ideal, it didn't work well in low light environments, the battery was too difficult to remove, etc. All of these issues have been addressed for CE for Big Babies."
The basic concept behind the book remains the same: integrated electronics are configured by the turning of the pages, linked to LEDs and a pair of switches — latching rocker-switches, this time around. Each page demonstrates a core computing concept, with a brief description and full interactivity: flip the switches and watch the lights demonstrate what's happening.
"This was actually a pretty big challenge," Roberts admits, "because all the switches I found are either not low profile enough to fit in the back of the book, or not easy enough to toggle. At first I was looking at using large metal pole switches (like in the cardboard prototype), but after smashing my face into the book a couple times, I thought that we better go for something less pokey."
Roberts book is currently funding on Kickstarter, with physical rewards starting at $29 for early bird backers. The books are expected to ship in December this year.