Etienne Views Coding as a Puzzle!

Etienne Views Coding as a Puzzle!

Etienne, who hails from Charleston, South Carolina, is an incredible young coder! The 9-year-old 4th grader loves science, coding, swimming with his friends, and playing video games. A fun fact about Etienne? His middle name is actually “Danger”!

Since starting with Tynker in 3rd grade, Etienne has been coding for a year. This hobby has even inspired his future career aspirations – he wants to become a video game coder when he grows up! We caught up with Etienne to ask him a few questions about his amazing projects and his coding skills. Read on to find out what he loves about learning to code!

How did you learn how to use Tynker when you were first starting out? I did Spin Draw and I was taught by my friend Gordon, who was also featured!

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

How do you get inspiration for your projects? Whenever I make a project I just think of something, then see if it works.

Why do you like to code? It is like a little puzzle!

Do you have a favorite code block? The broadcast block.

What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? I publish it, and if I find bugs in it, I unpublish it, fix the bugs, then re-publish it.

What is your favorite project you’ve made so far? I like my 5 Nights of the Aquarium.

What are you planning to make next? I’m working on another 5 Nights at Freddy’s project and my 1-minute movie too. It’s got like 6k views and 41 likes! That was my first one I made.

What’s your favorite thing you can do in Tynker? I like doing the drawing part and the coding!

How do you think learning to code has prepared you for the future? It’s good practice for video game making.

Do you think other kids should try coding? Yes! They probably haven’t done it before and they might think it’s cool, even though they saw that it could be hard.

What advice would you give to kids starting out with Tynker? Start with the drawing first, then do the coding part next.

We also had the chance to speak to Etienne’s mom, Laura, about her thoughts on Etienne’s learning to code. “It’s really cool to see his mind work in that way!” she said. “Putting it together and using some of the drawing art he’s doing – it’s really interesting.”

She happily noted that coding has changed a lot since she was growing up, making it far more accessible for kids. For a child like Etienne, who has always been interested in engineering, coding is a natural development of his interests. Laura has also noticed that Etienne has been benefiting from learning to code in other ways, such as developing patience, perseverance, and confidence.

“I think it’s been really good for his self-esteem,” Laura said. “Only having the ‘like’ button has been really encouraging, because he’s getting to see that people like his projects. It’s also helped him become a little more focused on finishing projects.”

Laura also believes that Etienne is better prepared for the future thanks to his coding experience. “Just being able to sit down and learn a computer language I think, in general, is going to be good for this generation,” she said, “because it’s going to be a part of everyday life now.”

We absolutely agree! Thank you for taking the time to speak with us, Laura and Etienne. We can’t wait to see what projects you create next, Etienne!