Imagine being able to choose the ending of a brand-new, unreleased book… at age ten! That’s exactly what the students at UT Elementary experienced when they had the opportunity to provide feedback and choose the ending of Joshua Otti’s new book, “Base Ten is Best. Binary is Better.”
Joshua Otti, a Ph.D. student in the Theoretical Computer Science Program at The University of Texas at Austin, combined his knowledge of computer science with his passion for childhood education to create a children’s book called, “Leaf’s Library,” to teach children about binary search and binary code. “Binary search is a problem-solving skill that helps children learn logical thinking and efficiency,” Joshua said. The story introduces binary searching through a narrative featuring a fairy named Leaf. His wife, Tavyn Otti, illustrated the book.
On Thursday, October 10th, The Otti’s visited Mr. Kameron Koeffler’s STEAM class to read “Leaf’s Library,” and engage in hands-on activities with third, fourth, and fifth-grade students.
It didn’t take long for the students to catch on to the binary search. The Otti’s led students in binary search games with varying difficulties as they explained the practical applications for computers.
After the success of their first visit, Joshua and Tavyn Otti returned to Mr. Koeffler’s STEAM class in November with an incomplete version of their newest book, “Base Ten is Best. Binary is Better.” The book places itself in the form of a competitive argument between Base-2 and Base-10. Base-2 (binary numbers using computer coding), uses only two digits: zero and one. This differs from the commonly used Base-10 system that uses ten digits: zero through nine.
When asked about why he wrote the book, Joshua responded, “I wanted to show other ways to count and expose younger students to math concepts that are useful. Binary is more efficient for computers because it requires fewer commands to interpret the same value, but decimals are easier for human brains to understand.” Research shows that a better understanding of binary numbers builds a strong foundation for computer coding and languages for students.
The third, fourth, and fifth-grade students were shown multiple ending options for the book. Mr. Koeffler, the UT Elementary STEAM teacher, then asked, “Which ending would help all students, not just you, better understand binary numbers?” The Otti’s were surprised to see that the overwhelming majority of students from all groups preferred an alternate ending that was similar to an older version’s ending of the book.
After taking feedback from the UT Elementary students, Joshua Otti published the book, “Base Ten is Best. Binary is Better,” with the updated ending in December 2024.
Both his first book, “Leaf’s Library,” and his new book, “Base Ten is Best. Binary is Better,” are available on stemforestbooks.com as well as Amazon. UT Elementary also has copies of the books for students to check out at the school library. We can’t wait to see what comes next for the Otti’s and for the UT Elementary STEAM students!
