Featured Maker Xavier is 11 years old and lives in Washington, USA! When he\u2019s not in school, Xavier likes to draw, code, and participate in theater arts. He\u2019s made movies with his friends, like a documentary about the American Revolution in which he played a foot soldier! His favorite subjects in school are math and art, and he\u2019s currently involved in an after-school math club, where he\u2019s getting ready to participate in a math competition. In addition to using Tynker, Xavier is learning computer science concepts like HTML5 and 3D CAD coding. A fun fact about Xavier is that he likes cheese! Read on to learn more about Xavier and why he feels coding is a creative medium and a skill that\u2019s preparing him for the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What do you want to be when you grow up? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A dermatologist, probably. I\u2019m going to a STEM school where I\u2019m going to take computer science classes, so that too. I\u2019ve always wanted to be a doctor of some sort and help the community. [Computer science] is a creative medium for me, like art. I like to feel like I\u2019ve made something that other people enjoy. If you were to do that for a career, what could you see yourself doing with it?<\/em> App designing, or a business systems analyst like my dad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How long have you been coding? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Since I was nine, because when I started 4th<\/sup> grade we got our school-issued iPads. Tynker was In their catalogue of educational apps, so I downloaded it onto the iPad and I started playing with it and seeing some of the tools. It\u2019s a thing that me and my friends do. I also used to, in 3rd<\/sup> grade and years before that, use the ‘inspect’ feature on the school computers. One time it was my birthday and we were doing a state-issued test and I changed the \u201cCongratulations, you have finished your test\u201d to \u201cHappy Birthday Xavier.\u201d How did you learn how to use Tynker when you were first starting out? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I used some of the beginner courses and then went off on my own and started making other things. I put code blocks together and saw what they did and asked myself, I wonder if I could make that into something bigger<\/em>. I just kept adding [code blocks] into things to see what they did. How have your coding skills improved since you started using Tynker?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I got really into [coding] with Tynker. I didn\u2019t really know how to begin before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Where do you get the idea for \u2018Lumberjack\u2019? How long did it take you to make?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/strong>I used to be really into Minecraft and stuff like that. I drew inspiration from Minecraft, but it\u2019s really hard to make 3D games and stuff. Not quite at that level yet. So, I decided to make a top-down game and that\u2019s how \u2018Lumberjack\u2019 came to be. The first thing I added was naturally-responding trees that you could get wood from. And then I kept adding onto it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I started making it at the end of fourth grade. The actual time working on it would be ten hours, probably. Just putting in twenty minutes everyday to start piecing together some stuff and start getting the trees working. I went through phases: I would code a new thing, and then I would debug it and then add new features to that thing. It took a while to build up my foundation for the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n\n
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