Aspiring Actor Asher Expresses Himself with Code!

Ten-year-old Featured Maker Asher lives near Philadelphia and is full of energy – in addition to coding, his hobbies include playing soccer and snowboarding. He attends an overnight camp that allows him to practice these outdoor activities, as well as his passion, acting!

“In school, we have this event called ‘Script to Screen,’ and I was involved in that,” said Asher, who wants to become an actor someday. “We also have a 5th grade musical every year, and I was in that too! I like acting because one day you can be the best character and then the next you can be the evil beast – it has a lot of creativity!”

Asher gets the best of both worlds, because he loves to both play outside and code! We sat down with him and his mom, Theresa, to find out more about his creativity and perseverance.

How did you get introduced to Tynker and how long have you been coding? I’ve been on Tynker for a whole school year! I started to use Tynker at school in a class called STEAM, which is one of our school’s specialties.

How did you learn how to use Tynker when you were first starting out? My STEAM teacher taught everyone, and I quickly learned and played with it at home to see what different things did! I got to know the starting blocks, like the sound blocks, and then I branched out and tried other ones myself.

How did you feel when you found out your project had been featured? I was really excited!

How long did it take you to make your featured project? It took a long time to make! The hardest part to make was drawing on the background of the area, but once I found out how to do that and tested it, it was easier to figure out the different controls.

How do you get inspiration for your projects? I saw other projects where you get to draw your own thing, and I thought that was cool! I took those ideas, put them into my game, changed them, and experienced trial and error – I changed, added, and removed a lot of things. Sometimes my sister will come up with ideas and I make them into a game. She is starting to code, but she really helps me out with suggestions for ideas! Other people in my class help suggest ideas to me as well.

“Draw!” 

Why do you like to code? It’s a fun way to show everybody else what you like to do and how you can make things. I like being able to express myself! I really like to figure out how to do different things and then use that to find out how to perform other tasks.

What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? I show it to my friends and my sister and then change whatever they think needs to be changed! Afterwards, I’ll play it a lot and see if it works, and if it does, I’ll publish it!

What is your favorite project you’ve made so far? Probably the drawing game, because you can draw whatever you want in it and do so many things to it!

“Fidget”

What are you planning to make next? Right now, I’m working on fixing the bugs with the drawing game.

What’s your favorite thing you can do in Tynker? You can make whatever you want and share it with everyone that uses Tynker!

Do you think other kids should try coding? Yes! It’s really fun and you have a chance to try something new – maybe you’ll like it!

What advice would you give to kids starting out with Tynker? Start with a small idea that you have and try to find out how to use the blocks, then try to make that work. Grow on that and keep trying new things!

Asher’s mom, Theresa, works in technology and knows the significance of coding skills. When asked if she thinks coding prepares Asher for the future, she said, “Absolutely! It’s a great skill to have. I work with technology myself, and just the idea of having this skill and to build it at this age is something that I wish I had. I didn’t come into it until much later in life because it wasn’t available. To have that foundation at this age is wonderful!”

Theresa really underlines the balance between giving him enough time for both physical activity and technology. “When he does want the time with technology,” she said, “I really like that he has this outlet instead of playing video games. For me, it really is about finding that balance so he has time to do both.”

Both Theresa and Asher love that he’s learning to code with Tynker. Theresa would like Asher to be able to perform at the next level, and Asher wants to learn more!

The perseverance that Theresa sees from Asher lets her know that he is doing something right. She likes that he doesn’t give up, saying, “With a lot of technology I find that it’s about instant gratification, but with coding I find it’s the exact opposite. It really teaches them to persevere and keep working on something until they get it the way that they want it.”

Thank you for chatting with us, Theresa and Asher! We are eager to see more of your upcoming projects. Happy coding!