Future Vet Sofie Codes Amazing Animal Projects!

Meet Featured Maker Sofie, a 9-year-old from North Carolina. Sofie enjoys playing video games and loves animals. She uses Tynker to create projects featuring animals, and she even plans to become a veterinarian when she grows up!

Sofie is full of ideas for her future plans, and she often tells her mom, Theresa, about her ideas. Theresa explained that one plan of Sofie’s is “an idea to have a mobile vet clinic, so she can travel around saving animals.” We think that’s a great idea! Read on to learn more about Sofie’s goals, creative inspirations, and her experience learning to code with Tynker.

How did you get introduced to coding? Theresa explained, “Sofie’s school has a partnership with Apple, so they all have iPads. During their downtime, they can look at different apps on their iPad, between assignments. One of her teachers showed her Tynker for the first time. That’s when she started using it. It was early in the 3rd grade when she started using it and playing with it.”

How did you learn how to use Tynker when you were first starting out? I just did it. At first I was like “What is coding? I have no idea what that is.” It was something I just jumped into!

How did you feel when you found out your project had been featured? Sofie’s reaction is vividly captured by her mom. “She came to me and told me how many views she had, and I was like, “Are you sure you don’t mean 250?” She said, “No, 2,500!” She was pretty excited to find out that many people had seen her project.”

“Dancing Cat!” 

Where do you get inspiration for your projects? I just randomly get inspiration. I get inspiration from my dog and horses!

“Sofie likes to draw animals,” Theresa added, “so she has a lot of pictures where she draws cats and dogs. She’s very creative!”

What do you do with a project when you’re done with it?  I like to share my projects with the WORLD!!

What is your favorite project you’ve made so far? My project about the First Dog (President Obama’s pet) – it’s cool!

“The First Dog” 

Do you think other kids should try coding? Yes! I think they should try coding because it’s real fun, and you can do whatever you want. You can make drawings move and more.

What advice would you give to kids starting out with Tynker? Almost always use “On Start.”

Sofie’s mom, Theresa, added many insights about Sofie’s creative process. Theresa explained how she herself was introduced to coding when Sofie became interested in it. “Sofie’s exposure at school taught us about it,” she said, “and we’re amazed at the things she has learned to do in such a relatively short period of time. It’s exciting.”

“What I think has helped her is having the projects already on there and remixing them to her taste,” Theresa said when asked about how coding has helped Sofie. “She’s had a lot of fun doing that, and it generates ideas from her little brain to come up with new things. She’s very creative, and I don’t want her to lose that by gaming all the time.”

We think it’s wonderful that Tynker has given Sofie a productive and creative outlet for her ideas. We hope Sofie continues to share her ideas and projects with the world, and we can’t wait to see what else she has in store. Thanks for chatting with us, Sofie and Theresa!