Meet our newest featured maker, 12-year-old Andrew from Ohio! Andrew has a ton of hobbies, from hanging out with friends to participating in Scouts and playing Beyblade, but one his favorites is coding. We sat down with Andrew to learn more about his experience with Tynker.
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How did you get introduced to Tynker and how long have you been coding? <\/strong>I started coding when I was in 4th grade, I believe. I was looking for something to do on an iPad one day. We have our own personal iPads in school, but we\u2019re not allowed to take them home until the 5th grade. I was looking at the app portal and I saw that a lot of people were using Tynker, so I wanted to try it out and make a game! How did you learn how to use Tynker when you were first starting out? <\/strong>It was pretty easy to start off with instead of typing out codes, you can piece them together. I figured out ways from other people\u2019s codes to use the same things. When I\u2019m trying to get a variable to increase, I have to get a little bit more help from that, but it\u2019s still pretty easy to start off with! And I visit the community board a lot because I like to see what other people are doing! How have your coding skills improved since you started using Tynker? <\/strong>Ever since I used Tynker, I\u2019ve improved with my robotics and more programming. I had a merit badge for programming which I learned more from because of Tynker. How did you feel when you found out your project had been featured? <\/strong>I felt really good! I told my friends and I told my parents! I was really excited because I\u2019ve never had a featured game before! What is your favorite project you\u2019ve made so far and what do you like about it? <\/strong>My two favorite projects I\u2019ve made so far, is the Beyblade simulator and I like that I made an A.I. I also increased the detail on the special moves! The other one I like is like a boss battle with a giant cat with stuff on it. Where did you get the idea for your favorite project and how long did it take you to make?<\/strong> For the cat boss, I was really into a game when I was in the 5th grade, and my friend made a boss battle from the game and I had the idea to add more stuff to it. I just made a duplicate of it and made it more colorful and added more stuff to it. It took me a couple months for the Beyblade simulator! How do you get inspiration for your projects? <\/strong>I get inspiration from the things I do, things I see from other people. Inspiration from what my friends or someone else did. The Beyblade simulator, I just got the idea, because I like to play Beyblades, so I just made the simulator. Why do you like to code? <\/strong>I like to code because it\u2019s like animation that you can control with specific words and numbers. You can do whatever you want with them. The outcome of what you did is always really cool! What is your favorite way to use code? <\/strong>I like using variables to create things and movement blocks to create cool things to do what I want them to do because if you don\u2019t have movement, then they just change colors and that just gets boring! What do you do with a project when you\u2019re done with it?<\/strong> I like to test it a couple times to look for bugs because I don\u2019t want something bad to happen with the game. At one point I had a glitch in my Beyblade simulator, when you did a special move, it would freeze you in the center, but eventually, I debugged it! What are you planning to make next? <\/strong>I\u2019m working on something right now, it\u2019s like in Pokemon you can choose an attack to do, like a medieval dog thing. It\u2019s kind of hard to explain, but there\u2019s 4 dogs\u20142 on your team, 2 on your opponent\u2019s team\u2014and you control 2 characters, which are dogs with human characteristics; one is a wizard, one is a knight. The opponent has a barbarian that\u2019s a bulldog and a chihuahua that\u2019s an archer! What\u2019s the best thing about Tynker?<\/strong> I think the best thing about Tynker is that it\u2019s really easy to learn and really fun to make awesome projects. Another thing is there\u2019s so many people that use it, it\u2019s really fun creating stuff and having other people see them! Is there anything we should change or add to Tynker? <\/strong>I don\u2019t really think so, it seems very good with how easy it is and there\u2019s no glitches with blocks, but even though there are glitches in the games people make, there are no glitches in Tynker and that\u2019s what I like about it! How do you think learning to code has prepared you for the future?<\/strong> I think it\u2019s really prepared me for the future because if we play around with robots, I\u2019m doing STEM next semester and I think we\u2019re going to use robots, so I think the coding technique will really help a lot and I think it\u2019s going to be my future job! Do you think other kids should try coding? <\/strong>I definitely think that they should try coding. It\u2019s really fun and it really gets your mind going. It\u2019s building a puzzle to get something working! What advice would you give to kids starting out with Tynker? <\/strong>I would give to them, start off with something easy and then when you\u2019re ready, do something big! And don\u2019t give up!<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Andrew\u2019s dad, Robert, sat with us to discuss how he feels about Andrew\u2019s experience with Tynker and coding. \u201cI think it\u2019s a great thing! I think coding is the way the jobs are going to go in the future,\u201d Robert said. \u201cI think that having that skill set is good to have, no matter if he is going into design, or pure programming, or if it\u2019s a peripheral thing.\u201d Robert\u2019s support helps Andrew become more independent with his own work. \u201cBasically, I support him by making sure he has the tools he needs and also by staying out of it. Not only is it developing his coding skills, but his storytelling and imagination skills as well.\u201d When it comes to how coding has helped Andrew in other areas, Robert responds, \u201cI think coding has helped him because it\u2019s problem solving. He\u2019s better at working through multiple steps, not only in schoolwork but in life as well. I know that if he\u2019s working with Tynker, it\u2019s a good place, he\u2019s not going to run into any dangers online and he can learn from a lot of people there. It\u2019s such an easy and desirable platform, that both my kids have sought it out and use it all the time. They have taken that and moved forward.\u201d Robert sees the benefits of allowing Andrew to work independently because he says it teaches him how to be more productive. \u201cHe\u2019s doing a lot of things that are preparing him for the future. He\u2019s learning how to cook, he\u2019s learning how to do more and more chores around the house.\u201d Robert continued, \u201cI think it\u2019s a good thing, and as a parent that\u2019s my biggest fear, I hope that my kids are prepared for everything and able to do things on their own. It definitely makes me feel good that he\u2019s learning coding and problem solving and having a good imagination because I think it will really serve him well in the future.\u201d We want to thank Robert and Andrew for taking the time to speak with us about Andrew\u2019s coding experience with Tynker and how it has impacted his way of life. We\u2019re looking forward to more projects – happy coding! Meet our newest featured maker, 12-year-old Andrew from Ohio! Andrew has a ton of hobbies, from hanging out with friends to participating in Scouts and playing Beyblade, but one his favorites is coding. We sat down with Andrew to learn more about his experience with Tynker. How did you get introduced to Tynker and how long have you been coding? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[510,54],"tags":[441],"class_list":["post-23166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-block-coding","category-featured-makers","tag-featured-maker"],"yoast_head":"\n
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