Kids wanting to learn how to build apps can game their way to coding skills with a new set of courses designed to making programming fun.
Tynker, one of the world’s most popular coding educators, is supporting Apple’s Everyone Can Code initiative with two new games — Space Cadet and Dragon Spells — that teach kids the fundamentals of coding before graduating to Swift.
Both Space Cadet and Dragon Spells are available starting today in the Tynker iPad app. The courses make kids build apps and games to experiment with coding using visual blocks as they progress from JavaScript to Python.
Fun with Swift
While the games are intended for kids from kindergarten to fifth grade, they can be used by anyone interested in coding. Students can also transition to the Swift programming language in the Tynker app so that they become more familiar with Swift syntax.
“Space Cadet and Dragon Spells were purpose-built to enable kids unfamiliar with coding to learn using visual code blocks and then ‘toggle’ to the Swift programming language as they progress in their development,” said Krishna Vedati, co-founder and CEO of Tynker. “We hope these new courses inspire an even greater number of students and teachers to embrace coding as a way to enhance early learning and future careers.”
The courses contain 115 levels of coding puzzles and projects. Space Cadet, aimed at kids in kindergarten through second grade, lets future coders solve puzzles in space. Dragon Spells teaches third to fifth graders the coding fundamentals by having them train a dragon and collecting treasures.
