Coding for Kids
Meet our newest Featured Maker and Coding Cup winner, 12-year-old Aiden from Missouri! Aiden likes Legos, and coding. Awesome! Aiden recently spoke with us about his experience coding with Tynker.
How did you learn how to use Tynker when you were first starting out? What are some of your favorites? courses or tutorials?
I’ll make someone’s project and try to figure out how the code works.
How have your coding skills improved since you started
using Tynker?
They’ve improved a lot. I didn’t understand what variable was at first. Now I do.
So how did you feel when you found out that you were a featured maker?
I was excited.
What is your favorite project you’ve made so far, and what do you like
about it?
My favorite project is my pinball game, but I’m currently working on one that I think I’m going to like better.
So how’d you get inspiration for your projects?
Sometimes I’m doing something and it comes to mind. I look at the community.
What is your favorite way to use code? Do you have a favorite code block?
I like the clone block. Because you can create a clone of the actor and have that clone do other things.
What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? Do you debug it? Show it to someone? Publish it?
When I’m done with a coding project, I show it to my parents and my brother, see if they can find any bugs in it, then debug it, and then publish it.
So what are you planning to make next?
I am making a truckracing game where you race a RC well, not RC, but a truck over obstacles.
What’s the best thing about Tynker, or what do you like about Tynker the most?
The community, where you can publish your projects.
How do you think learning to code has prepared you for the future?
It’s really prepared me for the future because now I can actually create something digital, like a game.
Do you think other kids should try coding? Why is that?
Absolutely. It’s really fun.
What was your favorite thing about Coding Cup?
That you would code the players.
What does your team look like?
[For their jerseys] I have a duck that’s kicking a soccer ball.
What was your team name?
Green Village Ducks.
How long did it take for your team to get on the Leaderboard?
I was on the Leaderboard about three days after I started working on the code.
What advice would you give to kids starting out with Tynker?
Make someone else’s project and try to figure out how the code works. Or change something. Figure out what changed.
We spoke with Aiden’s mom about Aiden learning to code.
how do you feel about Aiden learning to code? How does it feel to see the coding projects that he is making?
He gets so excited about what he’s building. So it’s wonderful to see that he just has a passion to figure it out. And I know that coding is the future. I mean, it’s now and it’s the future too. So the more he can learn now, the better prepared he’ll be for whatever it is he decides to do down the road.
What benefits do you think coding has for your child? What skills besides the skills of learning to code does it help him learn?
Oh, he’s learning, in a process, how one thing affects another thing and how to change the variables and how that has an effect. And so I mean, yeah, it can be applied outside of coding, definitely. It’s being able to think ahead about an effect and figuring out what changes you can make, and it’s amazing the ideas he comes up with just out of nowhere, and it keeps him up at night sometimes because he gets these ideas in his head and he wants to figure out how to make them work.
How do you support your child in their coding endeavors?
Well, I’m not a coder myself. I’ve dabbled in it a little bit. So I do my best to support him by watching what he’s done and try to give feedback, but sometimes I get to the point where I’m like, “You’re going to have to figure it out,” and he does. He takes the time and he works through it.
Thank you for taking the time to speak with us about coding with Tynker. We can’t wait to see what Aiden creates next – HAPPY CODING!
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