Andreea Sets an Example by Coding!

Andreea is in 5th grade and lives in Jacksonville, Alabama. She’s ten years old and likes drawing, reading books like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, and participating in technology and science activities at school. We were really impressed by Andreea’s artistic projects, so we wanted to find out why she codes!

What’s your favorite subject in school? Definitely either history or reading. Those are my two favorites.

What do you want to be when you grow up? I was thinking an art teacher or an artist.

How did you get introduced to Tynker? Our school provides us with iPads, and they installed Tynker. I just started experimenting with it and I created the maze game.

How did you figure out how to code in Tynker? I looked on some of the tutorials, but I also figured out a lot of it myself.

How long have you been using Tynker? Ever since the app was installed I started playing games, but then I got to the point where I was actually making my own games.

Do you look at the Tynker community projects? Yes, a lot. I like looking at the projects because some of them are interesting. I like the ones about history, that help you learn.

What’s your favorite feature in Tynker? I like that it’s easy. One time we were on a field trip and we went to our local college, and they taught us how to code – but I’m pretty sure it was some hard code like JavaScript. The thing about Tynker is the blocks are really easy to use.

What is your favorite thing you’ve made? I think the eye one was the most fun, because I drew those.

Where do you get ideas for your projects? For the maze game, my brother showed me this cool app and I thought, “It’d be better if something happened if you didn’t actually complete the level.” So he showed me that and I thought, “I could make another game on Tynker.”

Is there anything you’re working on currently? Yeah, I’m trying to recreate a toy called Simon Says. It gives you a pattern and you have to do the pattern in the right order. I’m working on that currently.

What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? I publish it, of course. First I like to organize the blocks. I press the button that says “rearrange blocks” because I like that you just press it and all the buttons are suddenly organized.

Do you show your projects to your friends or family? Yeah. Sometimes my friends will come to me and be like, “I found your game! It’s featured!”

Why do you like to code? I like to code because I think it sets a good example for my brother. Usually he uses iPad for games, and it can be a bit frustrating because he gets attached to it. When he discovered Tynker after I told him about it, he started creating games. It distracted him from the other games he was playing, so he wouldn’t be on those all the time so I can actually share stuff with him, instead of him sharing stuff with me.

Do you think other kids should try coding? Definitely! It’s fun – I like it. It’s educational too. Our school does this Code.org program that tells kids there’s a lot of coding jobs open, so I think that could really help – there are computer jobs everywhere now.

What advice would you give for kids starting out with Tynker? I think they should look on other projects’ code. That’s what I started to do a bit – look at other projects’ code to kind of figure it out. I looked at the tutorials and everything. I think they should look on the tutorials because they really help, you know. It helps with understanding the code.

Andreea’s dad Petrica expressed his excitement at Andreea’s new coding skills. His wife is a professor who holds a Ph.D in computers, so it’s fun to see Andreea’s interest sparked as well. We love what he said about coding, and Tynker specifically: “It’s better than playing. That’s for sure. It shows what these kids can do with Tynker and other platforms. My daughter is coding and she knows more than me about coding the iPads, so I am very excited that kids can do that by themselves.”

As Petrica said – “Hopefully she will keep coding and using the iPad in a good way.” Thanks for speaking with us, Andreea and Petrica! We’re looking forward to seeing Simon Says. Keep Tynkering!