PyOhio
How I Learned to Code with My Dad
By
Alexander Preston,
Hank Preston
I’m nine years old, and I want to be a video game developer. I learned about coding by watching my dad and asking questions. To me coding is like a “sport” and I think lots of kids would like to code if they had a chance to learn and build things. I’d like to tell you how I got started, and show some of the projects I’ve built. Then you can have ideas on how to help other kids get started.
Sunday 1:30 p.m.–2 p.m. in Cartoon 1
My name is Alexander Preston, I’m nine years old, and I love coding with my Dad. To me, coding is like a “sport”. It’s a fun activity you can do, and become better at. I’m hoping to become a video game developer, because (almost) everyone likes games. I learned about coding by watching my dad, and asking what he was working on. I started programming by using Scratch on a Raspberry Pi and building some games, and now I’m learning to code in Python with Minecraft. I think that lots of kids would love to code, and I’d like to give some ideas about how to help them get started.
In this talk I, with some help from my dad, will show how you can use Python with Minecraft to connect to and control the world. We'll build buildings, blow them up, see what happens when Zombies invade, and other fun stuff we come up with.
Alexander Preston
Alexander is a very curious 9 year old boy who loves learning new things. He particularly enjoys doing experiments and coding with his dad. He’s hoping to be a video game developer when he grows up. He also loves puzzles, and solving challenges. He is quite talented at logic puzzles and has a collection of Rubix cubes (and other shapes) that he solves way faster than his dad can! Alex is also an animal lover, particularly puppies and kitties.
Hank Preston
Hank is a long time technophile, and loves learning and helping other learn about technology in exciting ways. His experience in IT is wide and varied including web/database development and infrastructure engineering. After many years away from “code”, he fell back in love with algorithms and IDEs when he discovered Python and how much fun coding had become (goodbye Java!). Hank’s day job is as a Developer Evenagelist and Advocate with Cisco DevNet where he gets to work in the land of network programmability and NetDevOps!
