Gabe Thinks Coding is Fun – and a Good Skill!

Eleven-year-old Gabe is in 6th grade and lives in Beloit, Wisconsin. He enjoys playing video games, golfing, and having Nerf wars. We really love his projects, so we spoke with Gabe to learn a little more about him and why he codes!

What’s your favorite subject in school? Math or computer lab. We do coding, as well as designing and printing.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Either a biologist or an engineer that works with technology.

How did you get introduced to Tynker? I found about Tynker when we installed it on the school iPads, and I fell in love with it.

How long have you been using Tynker? About half a year.

Do you remember when you were first learning to use Tynker? Yes, it was a very different experience than different programming sites I’d used before. It was better in the way it looks and how easy it was to program.

What is your favorite thing you’ve made? Either my Financing Freddie projects or the Undertail series that I’m making.

Where do you get ideas for your projects? Sometimes things I’ve seen at school, other projects on Tynker, or just my imagination.

Do you ever Tynker with your friends? Yeah, I do! I think almost everybody plays it.

Do you look at the Tynker community projects? Yes. There are some very creative projects on it.

What’s your favorite feature in Tynker? The ability to code anything you want.

Were you excited to see your projects were featured? Yeah! When I logged onto Tynker and saw that medal on it I was like, “Oh my!” and then I started cracking up.

Is there anything you’re working on currently? A computer simulator and Undertail Part Two.

What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? I usually look it over and see if there are any bugs, and if it’s good, I send it.

Why do you like to code? It’s something fun to do in my free time, and it’s a good skill for how this world is going.

Do you think other kids should try coding? Yeah! I think they might like it.

What advice would you give for kids starting out with Tynker? Start slow, don’t do anything too big – then once you learn how to do everything, go big!

Gabe’s mom Susan told us she thinks it’s wonderful that he’s learning to code, and that Gabe “is very math oriented, so this is really meeting his avenue of learning.” When asked what benefits she thinks coding has for kids, Susan said, “It’s very good for their creativity. I think it’ll eventually lead to a lot of good different education opportunities for kids.”

“I just want to say I think this is a great program for kids,” Susan added. “It’s definitely geared toward meeting this new tech age.” Thanks for speaking with us, Gabe and Susan! We’re looking forward to seeing what you come up with next, Gabe. Keep coding!