Triston Experiments with Code!

Featured Maker Triston from West Virginia is twelve years old and loves to learn new things! He is in the 5th grade and science is his favorite subject. Outside of school, Triston likes to play with dogs, play video games, write, draw and code. He wants to be an astrophysicist when he grows up! We were lucky enough to chat with Triston and his mom Amy about why he loves to code!

How did you get introduced to Tynker and how long have you been coding? I’ve been coding since 4th grade and I got introduced to Tynker in the 5th since we got our iPads. It’s just a nice app, how it works, there’s so much control in what you can do and what you can’t do. You can do basically anything you want to do.

How did you learn how to use Tynker when you were first starting out? When I first started out, I just looked at other projects. Then I started trying it on my own to see what I could do.

How have your coding skills improved since you started using Tynker? Yes, just being able to make things, do things. I was just putting stuff together to see what it would do at first. Now I know what I’m doing!

How did you feel when you found out your project had been featured? I was like, “Hmm, that’s kind of weird, that doesn’t usually happen.” I was with my friend and I was like, “Hey, look at this! What is this?” He was like, “What did you make?” And I said, “I don’t know! I just started making stuff and people like it I guess!”

What is your favorite project you’ve made so far? What do you like about it? Probably the one I made, it was really cool because I made it and it was this spiral that goes around. I just like it because it just gives you that feeling that you can do anything on Tynker.

Where did you get the idea for your favorite project? I got the idea because I saw a couple things like it. I’d say it took me 15 to 20 minutes just messing around seeing what I can do with it!

How do you get inspiration for your projects? Well, it depends, if it’s something I’ve done before, if an idea just pops into my head, or if I see someone else do it I might try to experiment with that.

Why do you like to code? I just like it because it puts you in that state – in real life, you have limits, but in the coding state, you can do whatever you want.

What is your favorite way to use code? I like the drawing thing. I like to just make it in the start to do something and in the middle do something completely different!

What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? Usually, I don’t publish a project right away; I’ll make it, leave it there, and then later I’ll check back over it and if I think it’s good, I’ll publish it.

What’s the best thing about Tynker? I think the community is the best thing. It’s this wide group of people. It’s the best, it’s a great community!

How do you think learning to code has prepared you for the future? If I do anything with code in the future, I’ll definitely have the basis for it.

Do you think other kids should try coding? Yes, definitely. It’s really fun and it’s a great learning experience and I think they should try it!

What advice would you give to kids starting out with Tynker? I’d give the advice to just start something new and just test around and stuff. Just start putting things together and see what it does. Use your imagination and do anything you want!

We were lucky enough to talk to Amy, Triston’s mom, about how she feels about all the awesome projects he’s making. “I’m just so impressed and so proud as a mom! I think it’s great.” She added: “What he’s told me so far what he likes about Tynker are the guidelines are very clearly laid out, so you never have to worry about anybody’s projects being inappropriate or anything like that. You have to worry so much about with your kids being online so much these days. And that was something he really likes about it. He said, ‘It’s simple mom, you follow the rules, you’re fine, you don’t, you’re out!’ That was probably what impressed me the most about your company.”

Amy also feels that coding has helped Triston build his confidence: “He’s met a lot of people and coding is something they’ve had in common, so I think it’s helped him come out of his shell a lot and helped him build his self-confidence. When he was showing me the game and how many views he was getting, he was grinning ear to ear! His sister was bragging about him and it just made his whole day!”

We’d like to thank Triston and Amy for chatting with us. We are so excited for Triston and can’t wait to see what he’ll make next!