My Personal Project - Kate Jordanm

My name is Kate Jordan, and as my Personal Project I decided to write and create a non-fiction pop-up book. The aim of this book is to teach young children about the cultural significance of Australian landmarks.

There are so many landmarks in Australia, however very few of them are recognised for their cultural value, and it is important for children to understand the significance of landmarks such as the opera house and the Great Barrier Reef.

I chose to communicate this significance in the medium of a pop-up book. As a form of literature, the pop-up book is becoming less and less common, however I have always been intrigued by how paper engineers manage to fold 3D models into 2D ones. Using a combination of newly learnt techniques, I managed to create eight of my own original pop-ups which resembled natural and man-made landmarks in Australia. Additionally, children have more visually oriented learning, and so for the main focus of the book to be the pop-ups, it is more likely that children will be entertained.

Throughout my Project, I learnt quite a bit about how important Australian landmarks are myself. I have also acquired a considerable range of writing techniques and engineering techniques from the construction of the book. I have immensely enjoyed creating prototypes of my final designs, and playing around with the different shapes and angles used in paper engineering. However, I am most proud of my book, which I have now finished, complete with 8 fully functional and unique pop-ups.