www.ingaingenjor.se
 

Malin Yngvesson - Inga Ingenjör

Our project idea is to inspire children to science and innovation in a playful way through a children’s book, with the character Inga Ingenjör. We want all children to know their future possibilities no matter what background they have. In this book we introduce what an engineer might do and encourage children to think creatively.

My coworker Andrea Pettersson came up with the concept Inga Ingenjör while working at Vattenhallen Science center LTH, together we have developed this project. 

I am an industrial design student at Lunds University and will start my master's this fall. The design program have encourage me to take initiatives and how to work in projects where we turn brief ideas in to reality. Since my first semester I have been active in different unions where I have worked with other dedicated people creating better study environments for others, developed leadership skills, made friends and contacts. Before the university I worked with children and have always found it inspiring, therefore I am truly motivated to use my creativity in this project to do something meaningful

The book will be printed during the summer so the first goal is to finish it, this will be done by dialogues with children and pedagogues to make sure we get the wanted result. The website will be created to market the book and let people follow our work. Schools and preschools within our target group will be contacted and we will give away 150 books. 

With this great opportunity from Leapfrog, to work full time during the summer, the project can really move forward. This is the start we need to reach our goal of inspiring children to science and innovation everywhere.

Malin Yngvesson - Inga Ingenjör #2

The book is now beginning to take shape! The website has been created and will be gradually updated with information and used as a blog. We basically have the story, but language and wording are still being improved. The illustrations for the book is in the making; the different characters and environments are developed and evaluated. Research in for example visual communication, gender and ethnicity is done parallel with the illustration to set a good tone in the book, with something for all children.

We are moving forward and feel that we have a clear vision. Unfortunately it is harder to get in touch with pedagogues during the summer due to vacation. It makes it a bit tricky to get the right feedback at the moment. We have planned for three different feedback groups and so far we have the feedback from group nr. 1. The goal is to let both adults (e.g. parents, pedagogues, teachers) and children be a part of the process to get the best possible result.

Since the feedback is necessary, the new plan is to have a more developed draft with illustrations ready later in August. We will now be focusing on doing just that and are very excited to see how our work will be received and what we can do to improve the result.

Malin Yngvesson - Inga Ingenjör # 3

These three months have been an amazing opportunity to realize our idea and for me to work full time with something I feel passionate about. To start up something completely new takes time and thanks to Leapfrogs I have been able to focus only on our book this summer.

The hardest thing during this time has been, as mentioned before, getting proper feedback since schools and pre-schools have been on summer break. Instead a lot of thought has been put to the illustrations so that we have even more material to get feedback on.

We have accomplished a lot during this summer but there are still lots of things that have to be done. The work will proceed, the next step is to contact people within our target group, we want to evaluate our work carefully before printing the final book. Our vision now is to have our product ready before the end of the year.

The most important lesson from working with this project is that no matter how thoroughly you plan something, unexpected things will occur. Instead of feeling discouraged think of how you can turn this new situation around and make the best out of it.

Tips for new entrepreneurs:

The key to a successful and fulfilling project is to find something that makes you happy, that you believe in and other people can benefit from. Put these thoughts of why and what you believe into words and other people will believe it too.