Aiko's Weekend Code

Aiko was good at maths, but she had never written a computer program before. When her teacher mentioned a coding contest for students under sixteen, she almost didn't sign up. "Everyone else will be better than me," she thought. Her best friend, Kenji, convinced her to try. The challenge was to create a simple game in one weekend. Aiko spent Saturday morning drawing her idea on paper: a cat that has to collect fish while avoiding puddles. Then she began typing the code. Almost immediately, nothing worked. The cat refused to move, and the fish disappeared at random. By Saturday night, she was close to giving up. Her older brother, who studies computer science, looked at the screen for a minute. "You've made a small mistake here," he said, "but I won't fix it for you. Read the line again." Aiko checked carefully and finally spotted a missing symbol. When she corrected it, the cat ran across the screen. She laughed out loud. On Sunday evening she sent in her game. She didn't win the contest, because first prize went to a boy who had made a music game, but the judges praised her creative idea and gave her a certificate. More importantly, Aiko had discovered something about herself. "A problem looks scary at first," she said, "but if you break it into small steps, it becomes much easier."