Meet Elijah, Creator of “Nyan Cat!”

Elijah is ten years old and in the 5th grade. He lives in Jacksonville, Alabama. In his free time, he likes to watch DanTDM on Youtube and play video games – his favorite is Minecraft! We think his projects are really creative, and asked him some questions to learn more about him.

What is your favorite subject in school? Science. I like to do experiments.

What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a famous Youtuber like DanTDM.

How did you get introduced to coding? I was first introduced to coding through “Hour of Code” at school. I was first introduced to Tynker at school through the app on my school iPad.

How long have you been using Tynker? Since 4th grade.

What is your favorite thing you’ve made in Tynker? Nyan Cat!

What inspired you to make this project? I like Nyan Cat because it’s half cat and half poptart, and I like poptarts.

Do you look at the Tynker community projects? Yeah, I like to play other people’s projects.

What’s your favorite feature in Tynker? I like the art.

What are you planning to make next? I want to finish a racecar game that I’m making right now. I don’t know what I want to make after that.

What’s something you want to make but don’t know how yet? I want to make something with Pokemon, but I don’t know what it’ll be.

Why do you like to code? Coding is fun and interesting. I like it better than doing schoolwork.

Do you think other kids should try coding? Yeah, cause they’ll have a lot of fun!

What advice would you give for kids starting out with Tynker? Try easy projects first.  After you’ve done a few then you can try harder ones.

We also heard from Elijah’s mom Kristina, who thinks it’s great Elijah is learning to code. She said, “He’s having fun and learning at the same time. You can’t ask for much more than that.” Kristina thinks coding helps Elijah express his creativity, while simultaneously being important for his future. She told us she’s very happy that Elijah has had the opportunity to learn coding, because “with all of the advancements in technology, coding is an integral skill to learn in today’s society. It opens up so many doors for him, from Information Technology to Engineering.”

We love that coding is a creative yet productive hobby for Elijah! Thanks for answering our questions, Elijah and Kristina – it was great to hear from you. We’re excited to play your racecar game, Elijah! Keep coding!

Make sure to check out Elijah’s awesome featured project, which uses math and coding to create beautiful math art.