Elisha Combines His Hobbies With Coding

Elisha is in 6th grade and lives in Los Angeles, where he loves to play basketball, code, and draw. He’s in an art class at school and likes to draw superheroes, comics, and characters. We found out how Elisha incorporates basketball into his coding projects, and learned more about how he uses Tynker!

What do you want to be when you grow up? A programmer. I want to make my own animations and games because I like creating and building stuff. It’s fun.

How did you get introduced to Tynker? My dad is always saying we should create stuff, and he told me I’d be interested in coding. I’ve been using Tynker for a year and a half.

Do you look at the Tynker community projects? Yeah, it gives me a lot of ideas.

What’s your favorite thing about Tynker? I like how there are coins for games you can unlock, and that you get coins for what you play. I also like that you can draw your own characters.

What is your favorite thing you’ve made? I have two favorite projects. One of them is Shark Attack, and the other one, which I just made today, is a basketball meter game. The basketball is sliding on a meter and you have to click the right one so it goes on the hoop and it counts your score. Shark Attack is where you get coins and unlock characters and there’s a boss level.

Why do you like to code? I like creating stuff and building things.

Do you think other kids should try coding? Yeah, because it’s really fun. They should try it.

What advice would you give for kids starting out with Tynker? Keep trying and don’t give up. I struggled when I first started because I didn’t really know what each block did, but I looked at other people’s projects and found out how they did it.

Elisha’s dad Alain told us a bit about why he thinks coding is a valuable skill. He said, “Because of all the stimulus everywhere – billboards and movies and everything going on – young kids don’t have a lot of attention and focus. To actually have to sit down and go from step A to B and get result C is a great skill to have so you can clearly explain and express yourself.”

Thanks for chatting with us, Alain and Elisha! We hope you continue to infuse your projects with your love for art and basketball. Keep Tynkering!

Make sure you check out a couple of Elisha’s awesome drawings!