Coding for Kids
Meet our newest featured maker, 12-year-old Andrew from Ohio! Andrew has a ton of hobbies, from hanging out with friends to participating in Scouts and playing Beyblade, but one his favorites is coding. We sat down with Andrew to learn more about his experience with Tynker.
How did you get introduced to Tynker and how long have you been coding? I started coding when I was in 4th grade, I believe. I was looking for something to do on an iPad one day. We have our own personal iPads in school, but we’re not allowed to take them home until the 5th grade. I was looking at the app portal and I saw that a lot of people were using Tynker, so I wanted to try it out and make a game!
How did you learn how to use Tynker when you were first starting out? It was pretty easy to start off with instead of typing out codes, you can piece them together. I figured out ways from other people’s codes to use the same things. When I’m trying to get a variable to increase, I have to get a little bit more help from that, but it’s still pretty easy to start off with! And I visit the community board a lot because I like to see what other people are doing!
How have your coding skills improved since you started using Tynker? Ever since I used Tynker, I’ve improved with my robotics and more programming. I had a merit badge for programming which I learned more from because of Tynker.
How did you feel when you found out your project had been featured? I felt really good! I told my friends and I told my parents! I was really excited because I’ve never had a featured game before!
What is your favorite project you’ve made so far and what do you like about it? My two favorite projects I’ve made so far, is the Beyblade simulator and I like that I made an A.I. I also increased the detail on the special moves! The other one I like is like a boss battle with a giant cat with stuff on it.
Where did you get the idea for your favorite project and how long did it take you to make? For the cat boss, I was really into a game when I was in the 5th grade, and my friend made a boss battle from the game and I had the idea to add more stuff to it. I just made a duplicate of it and made it more colorful and added more stuff to it. It took me a couple months for the Beyblade simulator!
How do you get inspiration for your projects? I get inspiration from the things I do, things I see from other people. Inspiration from what my friends or someone else did. The Beyblade simulator, I just got the idea, because I like to play Beyblades, so I just made the simulator.
Why do you like to code? I like to code because it’s like animation that you can control with specific words and numbers. You can do whatever you want with them. The outcome of what you did is always really cool!
What is your favorite way to use code? I like using variables to create things and movement blocks to create cool things to do what I want them to do because if you don’t have movement, then they just change colors and that just gets boring!
What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? I like to test it a couple times to look for bugs because I don’t want something bad to happen with the game. At one point I had a glitch in my Beyblade simulator, when you did a special move, it would freeze you in the center, but eventually, I debugged it!
What are you planning to make next? I’m working on something right now, it’s like in Pokemon you can choose an attack to do, like a medieval dog thing. It’s kind of hard to explain, but there’s 4 dogs—2 on your team, 2 on your opponent’s team—and you control 2 characters, which are dogs with human characteristics; one is a wizard, one is a knight. The opponent has a barbarian that’s a bulldog and a chihuahua that’s an archer!
What’s the best thing about Tynker? I think the best thing about Tynker is that it’s really easy to learn and really fun to make awesome projects. Another thing is there’s so many people that use it, it’s really fun creating stuff and having other people see them!
Is there anything we should change or add to Tynker? I don’t really think so, it seems very good with how easy it is and there’s no glitches with blocks, but even though there are glitches in the games people make, there are no glitches in Tynker and that’s what I like about it!
How do you think learning to code has prepared you for the future? I think it’s really prepared me for the future because if we play around with robots, I’m doing STEM next semester and I think we’re going to use robots, so I think the coding technique will really help a lot and I think it’s going to be my future job!
Do you think other kids should try coding? I definitely think that they should try coding. It’s really fun and it really gets your mind going. It’s building a puzzle to get something working!
What advice would you give to kids starting out with Tynker? I would give to them, start off with something easy and then when you’re ready, do something big! And don’t give up!
Andrew’s dad, Robert, sat with us to discuss how he feels about Andrew’s experience with Tynker and coding. “I think it’s a great thing! I think coding is the way the jobs are going to go in the future,” Robert said. “I think that having that skill set is good to have, no matter if he is going into design, or pure programming, or if it’s a peripheral thing.”
Robert’s support helps Andrew become more independent with his own work. “Basically, I support him by making sure he has the tools he needs and also by staying out of it. Not only is it developing his coding skills, but his storytelling and imagination skills as well.” When it comes to how coding has helped Andrew in other areas, Robert responds, “I think coding has helped him because it’s problem solving. He’s better at working through multiple steps, not only in schoolwork but in life as well. I know that if he’s working with Tynker, it’s a good place, he’s not going to run into any dangers online and he can learn from a lot of people there. It’s such an easy and desirable platform, that both my kids have sought it out and use it all the time. They have taken that and moved forward.”
Robert sees the benefits of allowing Andrew to work independently because he says it teaches him how to be more productive. “He’s doing a lot of things that are preparing him for the future. He’s learning how to cook, he’s learning how to do more and more chores around the house.” Robert continued, “I think it’s a good thing, and as a parent that’s my biggest fear, I hope that my kids are prepared for everything and able to do things on their own. It definitely makes me feel good that he’s learning coding and problem solving and having a good imagination because I think it will really serve him well in the future.”
We want to thank Robert and Andrew for taking the time to speak with us about Andrew’s coding experience with Tynker and how it has impacted his way of life. We’re looking forward to more projects – happy coding!
