Coding for Kids
Meet our newest Featured Maker and Coding Cup winner, 8-year-old Meleana from Hawaii! Meleana likes video games, swimming, and playing golf. Fantastic! Meleana recently spoke with us about her experience coding with Tynker.
Do you have an idea of what you want to be when you grow up?
I want to work at my mom’s computer company as a programmer when I grow up.
What’s your favorite subject in school? Why?
Science. Because it’s interesting. I really liked learning about gyroscopes, I even built one!
How did you feel when you found out your project had been featured?
I was excited because I can inspire more kids to join Tynker and see how fun it is.
What is your favorite project you’ve made so far? What do you like about it?
The mods for Minecraft. They’re cool. You can create new skins, animals, or any block you want. I made lots of rainbow blocks. I use the modified blocks to build things in Minecraft.
Why do you like to code?
It’s fun, I can make games for myself and my friends. I can take my dreams and build them using my programming skills.
What is your favorite way to use code? Do you have a favorite code block?
I like the repeat block. Instead of putting a lot of blocks, you can just use one repeat block and the number of times you want it to repeat.
How did you get introduced to Tynker and how long have you been coding?
I started about 4 years ago using Tynker Jr. on the iPad. Now I use regular Tynker on my computer.
What was your favorite thing about coding cup?
Winning! 🙂 I also really enjoyed decorating my team’s uniforms.
What does your team look like?
They look very cute. I first made uniforms for them with a picture of sunshine on them. Then later I changed it to a rainbow. I’m thinking about what to change it to next.
What’s your team name?
Rainbow Girls F.C.
How long did it take for your team to win?
I was in the top 10 pretty fast even in the first round I played!
What was your favorite code block that you used?
I liked using the Run to the Opponent’s Goal block. I used it to send one of my players to the opponent’s goal. That way when one of my players has the ball, the other goes there. Then they can receive a pass and cover the goalie. If they have a goalie that is, some other teams didn’t have a goalie, they just had three strikers! But I think having a goalie is better, my team had one.
Do you think other kids should play coding cup?
Yes, I recommend it. It’s fun, plus you can win and learn a lot!
How do you think learning to code has prepared you for the future? Do you think other kids should try coding? Why’s that?
I think it’s good to know how to code. In my case, it helped me to decide what to focus on in the future when I grow up. I think Tynker can help other kids to start to decide what to focus on when they get older.
What advice would you give to kids starting out with Tynker?
I think they should try the Coding Cup, and create their own programs. They should also draw some characters and program what they will do, and also try to create mods for Minecraft.
Do you have any questions for me or for Tynker?
What new things are coming in Tynker? Are you going to have more things like Coding Cup?
What’s a fun fact about you?
I just started to try a new program called ChatGPT. It uses a new kind of AI to make up stories and answer questions. You can talk to it. It can even create programs in Python all by itself if you just tell it what you want!
We spoke with Meleana’s dad about Meleana learning to code.
What benefits do you think coding has for your child? What skills (besides the technical skill of coding) does it help them learn?
It teaches logical thinking and problem-solving skills. Debugging programs, experimentation and immediately seeing the results are skills that are translatable to all kinds of other things.
Do you feel that your child is better prepared for the future?
Yes it gives them a new way to express their creativity. They can imagine things and then bring them into existence.
How do you support your child in their coding endeavors?
We give them tools and ideas and see where they choose to go with it. The world of computer science, and the world in general, is going through a tremendous change right now as generative AIs like ChatGPT are starting to gain greater skills and “intelligence.” ChatGPT as of early 2023 is already able to generate short programs in nearly any language to perform almost any task.
This is already changing the way that programmers work. They will need skills to assemble components created by AIs, and “prompting” skills to skillfully ask the AI engines things in the right way to get the result they want, and then to iterate on them. Debugging skills and higher-level architecture skills will be more critical than routine procedural coding, as the simpler aspects of coding can already be handled by generative AI engines. The speed at which these technologies are improving is hard for us to fully grasp, and it’s hard to know what skills will be automated and which will remain important even over the next couple of years. The changes coming over the next 10-20 years as AI evolves are likely not even conceivable to us at this time.
What do you think of Tynker, and is there anything you’d change if you could?
We’re just starting to explore what it offers, but it’s clear that a deeper focus on AI technologies including generative AI will be critical. As children start to be able to simply explain in natural language what they want their programs to do to engines like ChatGPT, the way they are able to “create” is fundamentally changing.
Thank you for taking the time to speak with us about coding with Tynker. We can’t wait to see what Meleana creates next – HAPPY CODING!
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