- Tiny Tales, Big Ideas

Rock Signals: Binary Code Made Easy

From Tiny Tales, Big Ideas—Where Simple Stories Spark Big Learning
At Tiny Tales, Big Ideas, our mission is to present complex concepts in simple, engaging stories that inspire learners of all ages. Created by a licensed public school teacher who has taught thousands of students, our books are proven tools for introducing tough topics in a fun and accessible way.

Discover a Prehistoric Code
Rock Signals: Binary Code Made Easy transports young readers to Caveman Cove, where Grog and Lila stumble upon a magical way to communicate using only red and green rocks! As they struggle to keep track of wild goats and important cave locations, they invent a special rock code that evolves into an incredible language—showcasing teamwork, creativity, and the foundation of binary thinking.

What's Inside

Engaging metaphors that turn tricky computer concepts into fun, relatable ideas.
Teacher suggestions for extending the lesson beyond the book.
Simple, memorable explanations of how bits and binary signals shape our digital world.
Eye-catching illustrations that make the concept of 0s and 1s come alive in a prehistoric setting.
A foundational look at one of computing’s most essential ideas: the power of two-state systems.

Whether you’re a teacher enhancing a tech lesson, a parent encouraging STEM learning, or a young reader fascinated by how simple signals can build complex messages, Rock Signals offers a delightful journey through the hidden universe of binary code.

About the Author

Brian Duryea is a public educator who has introduced thousands of students to the wonders of computer science. Inspired by a need to make complex ideas accessible for all types of learners, he developed the Tiny Tales, Big Ideas Computer Science series.

Tiny Tales, Big Ideas is dedicated to making complex topics in technology and science accessible, engaging, and fun. Through imaginative stories, thoughtful illustrations, and practical teaching suggestions, we aim to spark curiosity and show learners of all ages that even the biggest challenges can be tackled one small step at a time.

How to Use This Book in the Classroom

Read the Book Out Loud: Present the story during class or story time. Let students enjoy the adventure of Grog and Lila’s red-and-green rock signals without over-explaining the concept at first. After reading, ask a few quick questions about what happened in the story, and see if anyone notices a connection to coding or computer science.
Create Your Own Rock Signals: Have students invent new ways to use red and green “signals” in their own scenarios. They might decide that red means “need help” and green means “ready to learn,” or come up with symbols for different classroom routines.
Flip the Classroom: Put students in small groups to read the story together or review the key points. Have them present what they learned to the rest of the class.
Hands-On Binary Activities: Use an ASCII to Binary conversion chart and have students spell out their names in binary, or create simple sequences with red and green objects to represent binary code.

Rock Signals: The Binary Tale of Caveman Cove

Rock Signals: Binary Code Made Easy introduces readers to the foundational concept of binary—the simple “two-option” system that drives modern computing. In coding, using just 0s and 1s, we can represent vast amounts of information, from letters and numbers to colors on a screen. By mapping each rock to a binary value, the cavemen show how such a simple setup can multiply into countless possibilities.

When introducing the concept of binary, it can be helpful to link these red and green rocks to the bits and bytes of real computers. A single rock—just like a bit—can only show two states: red or green, 0 or 1. As you add more bits (or rocks), the possibilities multiply. Eight bits, called a byte, can represent 256 different values—enough to encode letters, numbers, and even small images.

In the story, Grog and Lila discover that red and green rocks can stand for anything they want—safe or dangerous caves, different animals, or new challenges. Each additional rock doubles the number of messages they can share, much like how every extra binary digit (bit) exponentially increases what computers can represent. This concept underpins how computers store everything from simple text to the colors on your screen, all by stacking these small two-state units into a rich index of information.

At Tiny Tales, Big Ideas, we believe that weaving big concepts like binary into imaginative stories helps learners see that digital logic is everywhere, from the caves of Caveman Cove to the computers we use daily. Rock Signals shows that when you start small you can build up to something amazingly complex.

Questions that turn this tiny tale into a big idea

Which is bigger: a kilobyte or a megabyte?
What is the smallest piece in this story?
Why do you think imagining a byte as a grain of sand or a droplet of water makes it easier to understand big numbers?
What is the largest piece of data in this story?
How many bits make up a byte?
What are each of the data sizes in order from smallest to biggest?