Coding for Kids
Featured Maker Teagan: Exploring the Paws-ibilities of Coding
Meet Teagan, our newest Featured Maker from Colorado! Teagan is 12 and has a passion for both coding and drawing — particularly drawing cats. Why cats? Well, as an aspiring veterinarian, Teagan is a pretty big fan of our feline friends. In fact, it was Teagan’s “Make a Cat” project that brought her to our attention in the first place. We think that’s pretty purr-fect. Especially since it gives us an opportunity to make cat puns!
All kitten aside, we’re very glad Teagan took some time to speak with us about her coding experiences with Tynker. Let’s get to know her!
How did you get introduced to Tynker and how long have you been coding? I used to do Scratch on my mom’s computer about two years ago and then I did Tynker!
How did you learn how to use Tynker when you were first starting out? Did you use any Tynker courses or tutorials? I already knew how to code, but sometimes I’ll use the courses. I would use the community board as well too!
How have your coding skills improved since you started using Tynker? They improved a lot!
How did you feel when you found out your project had been featured? I felt excited! I told my parents right away!
What is your favorite project you’ve made so far? What do you like about it? My “Make a Cat” project since it’s been featured!
Where do you get the idea for your “Make a Cat” project and how long did it take you to make? I got the idea from looking at other people’s stuff! It took me a couple of days!
Make a cat
How do you get inspiration for your projects? Sometimes, I’ll think of something as a game and then I’ll want to make it!
Why do you like to code? Because it’s fun to make your own games!
What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? I’ll test it out first, then I’ll post it.
What’s the best thing about Tynker? I really like the Minecraft feature because I play Minecraft and I like editing the mods. I like to make a lot of the mods!
Is there anything we should change or add to Tynker? I really would like it if you could add your own audio files.
Do you think other kids should try coding? Yes, because it’s fun to make your own games!
What advice would you give to kids starting out with Tynker? Start small and look at other people’s projects to see their code blocks!
Teagan’s mom, Rhea, joined the conversation to express her support and love for Teagan’s passion for coding. When asked about how Rhea feels about her daughter learning to code, she said, “I think Teagan and I struggle sometimes with her ability to stay focused on tasks. I think coding helps her with that because she wants to get to the goal, but she’s got to go through these multiple steps to get there. So, I definitely think it has a positive way of organizing thoughts, she has to do it in a certain order in order to make it work.”
Rhea sees so many benefits for Teagan learning to code and knows what skills it’s already helped her grasp. “I think it encourages creativity, which is very important to me,” Rhea said. “I think she’ll have such a solid foundation that she’ll understand certain key concepts without realizing it. I almost view it in the same way kids learn their letters and basic numbers and things and then when they go and do the more advanced math, they don’t even hardly know why they know and they just do.”
Rhea also expressed her thoughts on how this will affect Teagan and her future. “I think that it’s important for her to have this skill,” Rhea said, “So if I can get her interested and passionate in that, in the future, she might have some strong computer programming skills to go along with her veterinary studies.”
Our thanks to Teagan and Rhea for taking the time to express their experiences with Tynker and we look forward to Teagan’s pawesome upcoming projects! Happy coding!
