Academics
TinkerForge
Change one line, predict the diff. Read a little program that stamps shapes — a row of circles, a growing trail, a grid, some rain — and see what it draws. Then one line changes (a count, a shape, a coordinate, an operator, an if’s threshold): predict the new picture before you run it. Real tinkering is a small change, a careful guess, a look — not button-mashing. A read-before-you-run lab. Ages 9–14.
▶ Play it nowBuilt for sittings of about 20 minutes on the screen. That is our design budget, not a measurement.
Meet your mentor
Every Spark & Anvil app has a friendly mentor character that demonstrates, asks, and patiently scaffolds learning.
#0d9488 Characters who teach
Meet the cast
TinkerForge's tinkerers change one thing at a time, so you can say exactly what each line does.
Tweaky
(The one you teach) - changes five things at once and can't say which did what — you teach one change at a time
Diffy
finds the one changed line
Randle
scatters things anywhere inside a range
What's inside
Learning goal
Change one line, predict the diff. Read a little program that stamps shapes — a row of circles, a growing trail, a grid, some rain — and see what it draws. Then one line changes (a count, a shape, a coordinate, an operator, an if’s threshold): predict the new picture before you run it. Real tinkering is a small change, a careful guess, a look — not button-mashing. A read-before-you-run lab. Ages 9–14.
How TinkerForge handles your kid's data
- ✅ All progress, settings, and AI-generated content stays on the device
- ✅ No analytics, no tracking, no third-party SDKs
- ✅ Free — no ads, no in-app purchases
- ✅ No personal information collected from children — in line with COPPA (updated by the 2026 FTC amendments)
- ✅ No chat with strangers — play-together rooms use a short code and preset emotes, never typed messages