Abigail Tells Stories Through Code!

Abigail is our newest Featured Maker! She is ten years old and loves to tell stories to her siblings. When she is not coming up with compelling stories, Abigail loves to draw in her sketchbook! She is from Texas and wants to be a coder when she grows up. Math is her favorite subject, and she also enjoys science because she loves to do experiments. Read on to learn more about Abigail and why she loves to code!

How did you get introduced to Tynker and how long have you been coding? Maybe around a year. My mom got it for me and I thought that it was just another learning game. I wasn’t excited about it at first, but then I really got into it!

How did you learn how to use Tynker when you were first starting out? At first, I used Dragon Spells. It taught me some of the basic things I needed to know. Then I just started creating projects on my own! I would look at things on the community board and figure stuff out for myself. I saw people doing broadcasting, so I tried it myself. My projects have really improved because of broadcasting!

How have your coding skills improved since you started using Tynker? When I first started using Tynker, I saw that you can use different variables and functions. I’m starting to understand what they are now.

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

art contest!!!

What is your favorite project you’ve made so far? One of the biggest accomplishments for me was the first project I did broadcasting on. It’s called Toothless Battles. It was a pretty big deal and it was a lot of work!

Where did you get the idea for your favorite project? I really like the movie How to Train your Dragon, so I typed ‘Toothless’ in the community board and found other games like Toothless battles, but it was just Toothless talking. I thought I could remix it and improve the art on it and make it into an actual game.

How do you get inspiration for your projects? I like to find things on the community board. I’ll see something and try to make something like it.

Why do you like to code? I think coding is very fun! It’s also challenging to figure things out.

Do you have a favorite code block? I use a lot of the common ones. Also, the one with all the top blocks, like the yellow and orange ones, the ones that have repeat. And broadcasting, I use that a lot too!

What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? First, I show it to my mom. Then I publish it! We’ll go back and fix any spelling errors.

What are you planning to make next? Recently, I published an art contest and also an original content (OC) adoption and somebody responded to it. Right now, I’m just practicing a lot. Practicing my drawing and animation skills, like how to make characters blink.

What’s the best thing about Tynker? I really like the community on Tynker! I like looking at other projects that people have made, looking at the art. Then, I like to redraw the awesome art that people made, and add new features. I love coding games and my favorite part of Tynker, I would say, is the drawing part!

How do you think learning to code has prepared you for the future? Someday I want to be a coder and I think Tynker is helpful in learning the basics. Before Tynker, I didn’t even know what coding was. But when I found Tynker, I realized that everything has coding in it!

Do you think other kids should try coding? Yes! I think coding is really fun and I’ve really been able to see how everything works.

What advice would you give to kids starting out with Tynker? At first, when I started out on Tynker, it was difficult to figure things out. So, something that I might suggest in the Tynker community is on the community board, you can type Tynker Help. There are projects that can help you. The community is really helpful!

Abigail’s mom, Bonnie, had this to say about Abigail learning to code: “I’m very impressed. It’s really opened up her ability to do more things, because she was self-learning as opposed to learning through the lessons, which made it more productive and more fun for her.” She also told us that her husband sees similarities between what Abigail is doing on Tynker and what his engineering colleagues are doing.

Bonnie explained that learning to code has helped Abigail feel more confident in other areas as well: “A year ago, she would not have told you math was her favorite subject! I think it has a lot to do with the fact that she’s learned how to challenge herself. She’s learned how to not give up.”
Bonnie has also noticed that, with Tynker, Abigail has developed a habit of finishing projects–a trait she didn’t always have before. “I feel like it really has encouraged her to see something to completion, especially because she knows that when she publishes it, other people are going to be seeing it. It’s a heightened level of wanting it to look right.”

We want to thank Abigail and Bonnie for taking the time to tell us about their experience with Tynker. We can’t wait to see the new projects that Abigail makes! Happy coding!