Hello Ruby is a series of part picture, part activity books written by Linda Liukas (a Children’s book author, illustrator, storyteller and programmer). So far there are three books in the Hello Ruby series;
- Hello Ruby- Adventures in Coding
- Hello Ruby- Journey Inside the Computer
- Hello Ruby- Expedition to the Internet
Linda’s first book in the Hello Ruby series, ‘Adventures in Coding’ first appeared on Kickstarter in 2014 and managed to raise their funding goal in only 3.5 hours. You can read all about this journey through several blog posts HERE.
“Hello Ruby is the world’s most whimsical way to learn about computers, technology and programming.”
Hello Ruby- Journey Inside the Computer
Book Contents:
- Introduction for the Parents
- Ruby and Her friends (meet characters featured throughout the book )
- Chapter 1: Boring:
- Chapter 2:Dad’s Computer
- Chapter 3: Electricity and Bits
- Chapter 4: Logic Gates
- Chapter 5: Computer Architecture
- Chapter 6: Software
- Chapter 7: Troubleshoot
Activities Section:
Design your own paper laptop computer;
- Exercise 1- Name your computer
- Exercise 2- Hardware or Software?
- Exercise 3- Is this a computer?
What are Computers Used For?
- Exercise 4- Assemble Your Computer
- Exercise 5- How Do You Recognise a Computer?
- Exercise 6- My Computer Safari
Input/Output Machine;
- Exercise 7- Input or Output?
- Exercise 8- Make a Keyboard
- Exercise 9- Design Your Input/Output Device
- Exercise 10- How to Make Sense? (Sensors- temperature, light, pressure, moisture, movement).
- Exercise 11- The Incredible I/O Machine (Input/Output)
What Are the Main Parts Inside a Computer?
- Exercise 12- Add the Components
- Exercise 13- Connect the Components
- Exercise 14- Challenge the GPU
- Exercise 15- Chip Sudoku
Operating System and Applications;
- Exercise 16- Design Your Own OS (operating system)
Bits, Logic, Gates, and Electricity;
- Exercise 17- Design Your Own Power Plug
- Exercise 18- Think Like a Computer
- Exercise 19- How Much is One Bit? (Bit= unit of measure)
- Exercise 20- Write Like a Computer (binary)
- Exercise 21- Who’s Tricking You?
Going Through the Computer;
- Exercise 22- What Can You Do With a Computer? (brainstorm ideas, prototype, design your app)
- Exercise 23- Future Computer
- Exercise 24- Follow the Computer Click
- Exercise 25- Guess the Password
Glossary
“In a more and more technical world we need to make STE(A)M education more approachable, more colourful and more diverse. Our aim is to create, promote and evaluate exceptional educational content on computational thinking for 4 -to 10-year-old children across different channels.”
I have been working through both Hello Ruby- Journey Inside the Computer and Hello Ruby- Adventures in Coding with my 5.5 and 7.5 year old at home. We love these books. Not only are they fun to read, easy to follow and beautifully illustrated but they are also such a great, simple way to approach basic computer science concepts without causing confusion or overwhelm.
Hello Ruby- Adventures in Coding
“Learn how to: break big problems into smaller ones, repeat tasks, look for patters, create step-by-step plans and think outside the box.”
Book Contents:
Introduction for the Parents
Ruby and Her Friends
- Chapter 1: Meet Ruby
- Chapter 2: The Clues
- Chapter 3: Ruby’s Plan
- Chapter 4: The Penguins
- Chapter 5: Snow Leopard
- Chapter 6: The Garden
- Chapter 7: The Robots
- Chapter 8: Django
- Chapter 9: The Problem
- Chapter 10: Home
Activity Book:
Meet Ruby;
- Exercise 1- Sequence (instructions)
- Exercise 2- Decomposition
- Exercise 3- Pattern Recognition
The Clues
- Exercise 4- Strings
- Exercise 5- Numbers
- Exercise 6- Booleans (true or false)
Ruby’s Plan;
- Exercise 7- Algorithms
- Exercise 8- Algorithms and Sequence
The Penguins;
- Exercise 9- Data Structures Secret Language(code)
- Exercise 10- Data Structures Lunchtime
Snow Leopard;
- Exercise 11- Pattern Recognition
- Exercise 12- Loops
The Foxes;
- Exercise 13- Selection (command)
- Exercise 14- Selection (find missing instructions)
The Robots;
- Exercise 15- Creativity and Technology
- Exercise 16- Creativity and Computational Thinking
Django;
- Exercise 17- Functions (beak it down= order)
- Exercise 18- Abstractions (leaving unnecessary details out)
The Problem;
- Exercise 19- Debugging (bug hunt)
- Exercise 20- Debugging (problem solving)
- Exercise 21- Pair Programming (who am i?)
Home
- Exercise 22- Putting It All Together
Glossary
For More Information;
There is so much more to explore on the Hello Ruby website which you can view HERE. For example you can hear several online presentations by Linda Liukas ;
- A 12 minute TED talk on technology, programming and Ruby.
- A 6 minute TED talk on what is a computer.
- A presentation focused on the principles of play around Ruby.
Also on the Hello Ruby website you can explore the Teachers Resource section HERE where there is a series of free videos, resources and classroom materials including lesson plans.
‘We shouldn’t teach computer science only because it’s useful, but because it’s interesting and intensely creative. Computer science blends intellectual pleasure of reason and logic with the practicality of engineering. It blends the beauty of arts with the change-the-world ethos of social sciences.’- Linda Liukas, Hello Ruby Blog
