Bedtime Stories for Very Young Engineers

Bedtime Stories for Very Young Engineers 

This first-of-its-kind project, funded by Ingenious, aims to turn toddlers onto engineering through the power of storytelling. The project brings engineering to 2–5 year-olds in a medium they already love – bedtime stories. Thirty engineers were recruited to produce a series of bedtime stories videos that were made freely available online. 

The idea was born when Dr Anna Ploszajski, a materials engineer, wondered; what if we tried to solve engineering’s diversity crisis by targeting toddlers? As a full-time science communicator, author, presenter, trainer and stand-up comedian, she had seen the power of story to communicate engineering first-hand. Anna teamed up with fellow engagement professional and father to twin toddlers, Dr Steve Cross, to bring the storytelling project to life.  

Tackling problems in the engineering workforce 

The project was designed to tackle problems in the engineering workforce, where only 12% of the engineering workforce are women, and 9% are from BAME backgrounds. One problem Anna and Steve noticed was that by age 6, children already begin to recognise that a job in engineering isn’t for them. To inspire this very young age group, they decided to target this group and younger. 

Their ethos was to identify an underserved audience and bring engineering to a setting they are already familiar with. The story format is inspired by the success of the CBeebies bedtime stories series, but aimed to replace dinosaurs and princesses with problem-solvers and inventors. This introduces 2-to 5 year-olds to the world of making, improving and maintaining the human-made world around us. 

 

Training engineers to be storytellers 

Anna described recruiting the “non-usual suspects” of engineering and chose a diverse group of people, with different specialisms and regional accents. “Steve and I leveraged our networks to recruit 30 interesting engineers – we had over 100 applications!” 

The engineers received weekly training through Slack where they learnt how to pitch to a ‘very young’ age group. For example, storytelling at age 2 is sensory, focusing on rhythm, sound and repetition. By age 5, the stories were developed to be longer, with narrative and characters.

With the help of Anna and Steve, each engineer wrote their own story. They were then recorded reading the story which are now freely available on Youtube. 

Developing live events 

Since completion, the bedtime stories have been delivered to live audiences, including an event at the Brunel Museum. The event was a morning of live stories, delivered by some of the engineers. Anna described it as “heart-warming” to see the engineers develop their skills in storytelling to children.  

The project doesn’t stop at the videos and the engineers are now going into their communities to deliver storytelling.  

Kate Castle, one of the engineers involved, took her stories into schools and nurseries across the Southeast.  She has since run 12 additional events, plus one organised by the London STEM hub for British Science Week, which will be offered out to  more schools than she would normally be able to engage with. “It has been a brilliant way to get to those early years' settings, it means I can introduce myself as a civil engineer with pictures first as a short 'setting the scene' so the kids know a real engineer is reading them a story. And the stories themselves have been really positively received.” 

Tips for a successful Ingenious project 

For Anna, the most important piece of advice is to start from the audience. “Meet the audience where they already are – don't expect them to come to you, especially those not normally involved in engineering.” 

Anna also says to think about what you’re doing from the audience’s perspective. “It’s your job to sell engineering to them, so make sure your offering is tailored to their interests.”  

“The response from Early Years teachers has been really positive, as we knew going into this project there are just not many other engineering themed stories out there, so they are really excited when they see something so accessible for the younger ones.”

Legacy

Anna hopes the project can be expanded in the future with the chance to publish the stories in a children’s book. She also hopes for more events and for the project to be expanded to the North of England. The website also includes a blog which the engineers regularly updated through the project, documenting their experience.