Who said computer programmers had to have years of experience under their belt?
Seven year old Zora Ball from Philadelphia created and programmed a computer video game about ballerinas, jewels and vampires. Zora is a first grader at the Harambee Institute of Science and Technology Charter School. She created the game for a class that is focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Her teacher is Tariq Al-Nasir.
Tariq is the head of the STEMnasium Learning Academy, where an open-source software called Bootstrap and Alice 2.0, originally developed for university coursework, is taught. Tariq made the software more accessible to the younger students by using a programming language called Racket.
Tariq taught Zora and her classmates math in a fun way once he got them into the software. The students had to create interactive games using three elements: a player, a goal and something to avoid, all while moving along X and Y coordinates. Then they had to pick a setting for the game.
Zora chose a ballerina searching for a jewel in a nail salon, while trying to avoid a vampire, something she doesn’t like. “She was obviously very comfortable understanding that the danger is moving on the X and the player will be moving on the Y coordinate,” Tariq said.
The Philadelphia Tribune called Zora the youngest individual to create a full version of a mobile application video game. She recently attended Will.I.Am’s TRANS4M benefit in Los Angeles and showed him a new game she had made. In this game, Will.I.Am was the player, microphones were the goal and a bad note was the danger. Pretty amazing for a seven year old!
(Picture credit: Discovery News)