Mishka Brainstorms Projects Wherever She Goes!

This week’s Featured Maker spends her time daydreaming about what project she’ll make next! In Mishka’s words, “Sometimes at school when there’s a boring class I think of ideas, like, ‘Ooh, that’d be a good game idea!’”

Twelve-year-old Mishka was first introduced to coding at school, then started progressing quickly when her mom downloaded the Tynker app. The Australian 6th grader loves making games in Tynker and has recently started creating animations. We spoke to Mishka to learn more about what she does on Tynker!

What’s a fun fact about you? I like making cakes! I think my favorite thing that I’ve made is when I went to my aunt’s house and made Rocky Road cake.

How did you feel when you found out your project had been featured? I hadn’t been on in a few days, and when I got on it just said “your project has been featured” and I was like, “Oh my God!” Every day I got more views and I was just so happy!

How did you get introduced to Tynker? The first time I did coding was at my school. Then, a few months later, my mum showed me coding and got this app and then I started coding!

How did you learn how to use Tynker? I just did it by myself and got better at it. After a while when you look at it it becomes really simple!

How do creativity and coding fit together for you? I don’t know if this really makes sense, but you get to make your ideas into stuff! Say you’re making a drawing, you can’t really do it all. Coding is more fun!

Why do you like to code? I think it’s fun! I love block coding because it’s easier than text coding.

What is your favorite project you’ve made so far? I think my favorite one I’ve published is the dragon one! I actually made it first for my little sister because there’s a TV show with dragons on Netflix that she really, really likes.

“Lil’ Dragon Pet”

What are you planning to make next? I was going to try making a cooking game where you have ingredients where you put them together to make a food, then you can mix that with other foods to make other foods!

What’s your favorite feature in Tynker? I like putting blocks – like you know, the “if something equals this” – I like putting that in there. Or things where you make your own block.

What advice would you give for kids starting out with Tynker? Look at other projects’ code or use the tutorials that show you. Start with the simple code blocks, like “On Start” and “Say.” It’s easy to use because they say what they are.

Mishka’s mom Ivana introduced her daughter to Tynker because “She had all kinds of interests that seemed to align [with Tynker]. She liked to get on the devices, build all kinds of things, get into the nitty gritty. Tynker built on the interests she already had! Tynker offers a marvelous service.” Ivana learned to code before many people were interested in programming, and told us, “I’m really happy that it’s more mainstream now than it used to be. If you were interested in computing before, it was like you keep that to yourself!”

When we asked what benefits coding has for kids, Ivana gave a very eloquent answer! “It’s fantastic to have an idea and be able to realize it in that form. When you’re a painter, you’ve got your easel and your paints or when you’re a composer you’re writing to the score, but you’re creating whole worlds of another kind with coding! You’re moving machinery, you’re creating worlds for other people to immerse themselves in. It’s about that potential for sharing the idea in your head and making it something that other people can share in.”

We couldn’t have put it better! Coding is an immersive way to learn, gain a skill, and as Ivana said, build worlds of another kind. Thank you for speaking with us, Mishka and Ivana! We look forward to seeing what you code next, Mishka!