Meet Mark, Aspiring Software Engineer!

If you’re on the lookout for incredibly advanced Tynker projects, Featured Maker Mark is your guy! He lives in Sacramento, California, and is thirteen years old. When he’s not busy with his 8th grade studies, he enjoys flying his remote control airplane and dabbling in video games. We chatted with Mark to learn more about him and why he likes to code!

What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a software engineer.

What’s your favorite subject in school? Probably math. I just think it’s kind of simple, and I like how there’s always a direct answer.

How did you get introduced to Tynker? I was looking for something where I can code, but not so complicated, and then I found this! I discovered it on my own. I’m not too sure how long I’ve been using it, probably about a year. I use it to keep updating my game!

How did you learn how to use Tynker? By experimenting to see how everything works!

What is your favorite thing you’ve made? Right now I have a simple one which is tic-tac-toe, but my favorite is Free Drone – the one that has 23,000 views.

“FreeDrone”

Do you look at the Tynker community projects? Yeah! I’m trying to figure make a joystick instead of the button system that I have, but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet. I’ve been looking at other projects to try to figure out how to do it.

How do you get inspiration for your projects? Most of the time I just get an idea and make it, and if I need help with something I look at other projects that other people have made and combine it.

What’s your favorite feature in Tynker? I like the way that it’s not complicated! It’s simple and all the blocks are sorted on the left of the screen.

What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? I just see if I can make it any better! I usually just make it the best I can and then keep making it better than the best by updating it every once in a while.

How do you think learning coding now will help you in the future? It’s good to understand the basics and maybe learn a little more intermediate coding.

Why do you like to code? I find it interesting how you can make all these things that would normally make no sense into something that could be a game for someone to play!

Do you think other kids should try coding? Yeah, it’s fun!

What advice would you give for kids starting out with Tynker? Start with one character and try to make it so you can move it with some buttons. Maybe not some sophisticated ones, but simple ones, like broadcasting one thing to make it move and stuff like that.

Mark’s father (also named Mark) is a software developer himself. He told us he’s “glad [Mark is] interested – I think it’s a creative thing for him to do.” Mark believes coding helps his son “learn to think and to plan things out – taking things that don’t appear to be connected and assembling them into something that is. I think hopefully that skill will translate into other areas also, like other areas of science or possibly English.” We agree – computational thinking and the soft skills that come with learning to code build patterns of success in many academic areas! As we wrapped up our interview, Mark said, “I think it’s a creative endeavor for him too, so hopefully it’s a form of expression for him.”

Coding certainly increases creativity, and we’re always amazed at the ingenuity in Mark’s projects. Thanks for speaking with us, Mark and Mark! We can’t wait to see how you update and improve your games. Happy coding!