Izzy the Engineer
Big Problems. Bright Ideas. Better Futures.
Engineering shapes everything around us — from the bridges we cross to the devices in our pockets. Yet the thinking behind it: asking questions, finding root causes, testing ideas and improving them, rarely reaches children until it is almost too late to matter.
Izzy the Engineer is a series of illustrated stories designed to change that.
What Is It?
Izzy the Engineer is a collection of six illustrated stories for young children, each built around one of the core principles that engineers use every day. Alongside her trusty tool cart Tinker, Izzy tackles real-world challenges — from fixing a broken fairground to preparing a kite festival for stormy weather — using structured thinking, teamwork and creativity.
The stories are deliberately simple. There are no complex technical concepts, no jargon, and no prerequisite knowledge. What they do introduce, gently and accessibly, is the mindset of an engineer.
The six stories in the series are:
- Izzy the Engineer Fixes the Fair — Find the cause. Solve the problem.
- Izzy the Engineer Builds a Bridge — Plan it. Design it. Make it better.
- Izzy the Engineer Creates a Helper — Understand. Design. Test. Improve.
- Izzy the Engineer Saves Sports Day — Break it down. Step by step.
- Izzy the Engineer Visits the Factory — Small changes. Big improvements.
- Izzy the Engineer and the Windy Day — Think ahead. Be prepared. Stay safe.
Each story closes with activities and reflection questions to help children explore the ideas further.
Why Engineering Thinking? Why Now?
The engineering profession faces a well-documented skills gap. Recruitment pipelines, apprenticeship schemes and graduate programmes all play their part — but by the time a young person is choosing their GCSEs, many paths have already narrowed.
The question that inspired this project was a simple one: what if we started much earlier?
Engineering thinking is not simply a professional skill set. It is a way of approaching the world: breaking problems into manageable parts, listening to people’s real needs, testing assumptions rather than accepting them, and continuously looking for ways to improve. These are skills that serve a child well regardless of whether they go on to become an engineer, a teacher, a nurse, an entrepreneur or an artist.
The six principles woven through the Izzy series are:
- 🔍 Finding the root cause of a problem, not just its symptoms
- ✏️ Designing, testing and improving ideas through iteration
- 👂 Listening to users and understanding what they actually need
- 🧩 Breaking big challenges into smaller, manageable steps
- 📈 Continuously improving — the idea that good enough is a starting point
- 🛡️ Identifying risks and planning ahead before problems arise
These map directly to recognised engineering frameworks — root cause analysis, the engineering design process, continuous improvement, risk management — but are presented in a way that a five-year-old can grasp and a ten-year-old can build upon.
Who Is Izzy?
Izzy is a young girl with safety goggles, a tool belt and a can-do attitude. She was designed deliberately to challenge the stereotype that engineering is a male-dominated profession — because it should not be, and the earlier that message reaches children, the better.
Research consistently shows that career aspirations form at a young age, often before secondary school. Representation matters. Izzy is the engineer on the page that many children — particularly girls — may not yet have seen elsewhere.
A Note on Why This Exists
This project grew from two things: a childhood ambition to write stories, and two decades of working in engineering and manufacturing.
Over those years, the same conversations kept recurring in our industry: skills shortages, diversity challenges, the difficulty of attracting new talent. Outreach events, STEM initiatives and careers fairs all have value — but they tend to reach young people who are already making choices.
Izzy the Engineer is an attempt to reach them earlier, before those choices have been made, with something simple, engaging and free.
It is a small project. But if it helps even a few children become more curious, more confident problem-solvers, it will have been worth it.
Download the Stories
The full series is available free to download. Whether you are a parent, grandparent, teacher, scout leader or anyone else who works with young children, you are welcome to share them.
The stories are available via the link below. You may be asked for an email address so that future resources and updates can be shared with you.
[Download Izzy the Engineer — Free]
Izzy the Engineer is created by Stuart Bateman CEng MIMechE. For enquiries, collaborations or feedback, please get in touch via the contact page.
