Coding for Kids
Meet our newest Featured Maker and Coding Cup winner, 9-year-old Anderson from California! Anderson is good at golf. When he grows up he wants to be a computer programmer. Neat! Anderson recently spoke with us about his experience coding with Tynker.
What do you like to do outside of school?
I like to code. I also like to do crafts.
What’s your favorite subject in school and why?
Probably coding because I do like coding, and we do a lot of it in our school.
Why did you like Coding Cup?
I like how you could block-code them. Text coding can be confusing sometimes.
That’s an excellent reason. What does your team look like?
Green jerseys and varying skin colors and all the same eyes.
How long did it take your team to win?
I started off as a really bad team. And I figured out a good strategy using that Help button. I figured out a good strategy using X and Y coordinates to move to the opponent’s goal. And I figured out to use two strikers instead of just one and a defender. I really used a lot of tackling skills to keep the opponent from getting the ball, and I gave the goalie a lot of defense and lock skills so he could block a lot of balls and stop balls from entering the goals.
Excellent strategies. What was your favorite code block that you used?
Probably the tackle block because that was the block that changed my team from really bad to really good. I had zero tackling blocks at first and I upped it to four. And I started getting really good tackling skills. So this is round six and I have much better teams now.
Do you think other kids should play Coding Cup?
Yeah. A lot of kids in our class do not like Coding Cup because they’ve never even tried it. A lot of people are encouraging them to play Coding Cup but they still don’t like it. And now, a lot of people are playing it and liking it.
How did you get introduced to Tynker and how long have you been coding?
First of all, I’ve been coding for a very long time. But after I finished my coding course, I didn’t I didn’t start coding until I got introduced to it and I already had all the skills. So then after I started text coding I had to text code for a long time, and I got sick of it because it was very difficult and I couldn’t do much with it. So when I got to this new
school, we used Tynker where you could and then I saw this thing called Coding Cup, so I made an account on it and now I’ve been playing it for almost a year.
So how do you feel about making it up the ranks? Do you feel good that your teams did it?
That crucial match felt really good. I was kind of surprised. I even watched the replay of the match to see what really happened. I was just getting to the ball a lot, and they weren’t really tackling.
So why do you like to code?
I like to code because, first of all, I wasn’t introduced to block coding, so I only knew text coding, and I’m like, “Coding is too hard.” It’s like, “How am I supposed to do this?” And then I got introduced to Scratch which was a little easier to learn. I still had to take a lot of classes to get really good at it, like 500 courses, and then I leveled up to Python which I think is text coding but it’s much easier than C and Java and yeah, and then I got introduced to Tynker, and now I can use block codes to do a lot of stuff. And I’ve played a lot of the Tynker games that people uploaded and like Winter Code Jam and stuff like that. And there was also other fun games. And then after that, I got introduced to Coding Cup and then I played that ever since.
So what advice would you give to kids starting out with Tynker?
The advice I would give with Tynker is definitely start with the block coding. I started directly by using Java. And I was like, “Oh my gosh, coding is so hard. How am I supposed to do this?” On C, all I can do is move this guy from point A to B and
point A to point B. And then when I got introduced to Tynker, it got really easy. So definitely start with block coding instead of text coding.
Anderson’s mom, Ann, spoke with us about Anderson learning to code.
To be honest, I don’t even know what he’s doing every single time, and he loved to show me what game he made and what kind of thing he was playing, all that stuff. We just give him some time limitation, we are just worried about his eyes and it’s not good for the neck, for the body shape developing always doing that, I suppose. So we just want 30 minutes, 40 minutes maximum, and have a rest. But basically, I and his dad will support him. Dad gave him his computer, a new computer to use all the time, and we have multiple computers at home, iPad, everything. He can use anything he wants. And we have some time limitations.
So anyway, if you ask me how I’m feeling, I’m feeling proud of him. And I saw that email came through. I’m really happy for his little achievement with whatever he likes to do.
It’s always good.
Thank you for taking the time to speak with us about coding with Tynker. We can’t wait to see what Anderson creates next – HAPPY CODING!
