Coding for Kids
Our 2020 Summer Code Jam is well under way, and we’re so excited to talk to some of our winners so far to learn more about them, their awesome projects, and their experiences with Tynker!
First up is Iva is one of the winners of our Week 1 Challenge (“Create Your Own Avatar!”), our Week 5 Challenge (“Create a Crazy Contraption”) and our Week 6 Challenge (“Design a Soundscape”). That’s pretty impressive — only a handful of users have won multiple prizes!
Iva hails from Spain and would love to be a scientist when she grows up due to her love of science. She also loves math because you can solve things with numbers, she says it’s not just about doing the calculations, but about knowing which calculations to make!
When she’s not creating award-winning projects with Tynker, Iva is a 13-year-old who loves sports, particularly gymnastics! She’s been doing gymnastics since she was two years old and even competes at her school! She is also fluent in English, Spanish, French and Catalan and is currently learning Chinese!
How did you get introduced to Tynker and how long have you been coding? My school has always given us coding exercises, so I’ve been introduced to coding for a long time, but I was introduced to Tynker this year during the quarantine. Because in technology class they had to try and find a solution to give technology classes online and we use Tynker with the whole class. And I was really interested, so I decided to get my own account!
How have your coding skills improved since you started using Tynker? Well using Tynker, it’s a very unique platform, which I’ve never seen before and I quite like that actually. It’s fun, it’s more complicated than using the blocks!
How did you feel when you found out your project had been featured? I was really excited! I had never had something seen by so many people before, so that was pretty cool!
What is your favorite project you’ve made so far and what do you like about it? For last week’s challenge (“Tell Codey’s Story”) I actually really like that, because for me it was the most challenging one and we had lots of liberty to do anything we wanted! I quite like what I made in the end, it was just like a history lesson!
Where do you get the idea for your project and how long did it take you to make? I got the idea because my mom used to be a history teacher and she wrote about history and she also told me a lot about important women in history, which is what I made it on! And it took me just two days!
How do you get inspiration for your projects? I get inspiration from anything that’s around me that I’m used to, like a lot comes from my family, because we’re all interested in different subjects and so I can just ask them about anything! Being in Spain, it also has many different things that I can show to others. So I find inspiration from all around me!
Why do you like to code? I like to code because I like the idea of being able to make something and use it and not having to rely on other people to give you that code.
Do you have a favorite code block? I really like the forever block because, I mean, it just goes on forever!
What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? I usually publish it, and then I’ll show it to my family members, and sometimes my parents will show it to some of their friends!
What are you planning to make next? I did Code-A-Thon week three! Actually week three was quite hard for me because I like making long codes, because you can add detail, so having to make it in only 20 blocks was actually really challenging, but generally in Tynker I love to make games! Sometimes not original games, like sometimes I try to take games that we already have and try to put them in code, but I find that quite fun!
What’s the best thing about Tynker? I think it’s that there’s quite a good balance of being able to make your own projects and having inspiration, but also having courses and games that you can that have already been made for you and that you can learn from!
How do you think learning to code has prepared you for the future? Well, learning how to code, it’s actually quite intuitive and learning how to follow a set of rules and like making something from a pair of instructions will probably help in the future!
Do you think other kids should try coding? Of course! I think everyone should try coding because I find it really fun and you can make the code as easy or as hard as you want! I think everyone would love it!
What advice would you give to kids starting out with Tynker? I would say make a project about something that you are familiar with, don’t make it about something that is completely strange to you, make it about your hometown, or something that you’d like!
Code Jam Questions
- How did you come up with your code jam idea?
The moment they said to make an avatar that represented you, I knew I had to draw a leopard because I always thought of myself as a leopard! I also want to add something else, not just a leopard, so I decided to put the skateboard in because I love sports! It was actually quite challenging to make the movement of a leopard like skating on a skateboard!
- Have you done a Tynker Code Jam before? No, this was my first Code Jam!
- How long did it take you to complete the project? I’d say probably the same amount of time as week two, so maybe two days.
- Did you have any interesting challenges that you had to figure out? I wanted the movement of leopard skateboarding to look real, so I had to make sure that his body lowers down so that his arm isn’t suddenly just elongated more!
- How did you feel when it was over? Really happy because it was one of my first projects! Well, not really, it wasn’t the first, but it was the first one I showed to others!
- Are you going to do other Tynker Code Jam Challenges? Yeah, definitely because it’s summer for us and I have a lot of time, and I find them really interesting!
- What do you want to do with your prize money? Probably take more sports classes!
- Do you like to code and will you keep learning more about coding? Yeah, I definitely plan to do some more lessons, but even thinking about how to accomplish a challenge, it’s like learning!
Iva’s dad, Daniel, joined our discussion to speak about how he feels about Iva learning to code.
“I’m super delighted!” Daniel said. “I am very impressed by her dedication. Coding is something that I personally felt tempted to do but I never did, so, having her just trying and liking it and putting so much effort in getting that kind of outcome is very, very impressive! I was also very impressed with the project, it looks fantastic!”
Daniel has always known that Iva is self-disciplined, so he sees the alignment with coding and her personality. “I think her natural personality lends well to coding and I think coding reinforces her persistence, skills and way of working,” Daniel said. “So, I’m pleased that she can do that as well as many other things, she has got a lot of tricks under her belt!”
Daniel has seen how Tynker helps Iva, training her mind and her way of working to be a problem-solver. “In the future I think coding, no matter which level you would be doing it, would be as important knowing how to type or use a computer. That coding mentality applies to a lot of things in life.”
We want to thank Iva and Daniel for taking the time to speak with us about their experience with Tynker! We are looking forward to more projects from Iva — happy coding!
