Cheryl Johnson and her son, Cole, have been Thimble subscribers since the beginning. Recently, a few members of the Thimble team got the chance to interview her and her prodigy-like son, who has been using Thimble kits since he was just a young boy. Cole is an aspiring young computer programmer, who wants to create projects and see them applied in the real world. Cheryl and her son both seem to love Thimble, and couldn’t have been happier to let our team know. In the interview, we got to ask them some questions regarding their experience with the Thimble kits and why they love them so much.
Cole is a 15-year-old with an interest in programming and making digital electronics from scratch. He does this so that he can understand how the programs work, which helps him to build future projects.
Cheryl is a middle school science teacher at Salamanca Middle School, and part of her curriculum when she is teaching physics involves electricity and electronics.
“I’m able to get the kids interested in these topics using the Thimble kits that we built, and it’s been a great product for us because it’s like the carrot at the end of a stick. First learn a little bit of electronics, programming, and soldering, and this is your prize,” she said.
Cole and his mom attended Thimble’s live Kickstarter launch party event and became one of the first to invest in our kits. “Attending the live event was a great experience, and it was awesome to see all the products being sold out within hours,” Cheryl said.
Cole and his mom aren’t just using Thimble in the classroom, but also for some fun stuff outside of school as well. Cole recently used Thimble on his Halloween costume and explained to us why using parts from our LED Cube Kit worked better than standard LEDs. “It’s easy to program, it’s nice and compact, and the product did everything that I needed it to do in order for me to build the costume,” Cole said. Cheryl chimed in to say, “Thimble is a reliable product. Cole knew he could put it all together without the thought of the product breaking down.”
When Cheryl joined the Salamanca School district, she had a very supportive administration, and the first thing she wanted to do with the funding they gave her was purchase Thimble kits for her middle school students. “This really helped get the kids involved with our Makerspace at the school, and get involved with the Thimble kits as well,” Cheryl said.
We told Cheryl about our curriculum we are implementing so that our subscribers and students in the classroom get the most out of the product. Cheryl loved the idea of a curriculum. As a teacher herself, she thinks that teachers will now be able to just focus on learning themselves and easily implement Thimble into their classroom.
“When I hear Thimble, I think of independent or group projects, fun and effective learning, kid through adult, and great company feedback and customer service on the forum.” That is what Cheryl had to say when we asked her what came to mind when they hear Thimble, and that’s what we want all of our customers to believe.
Getting to know our customers, and hearing about experiences like Cheryl and Cole Johnson’s with our kits, is always eye-opening to us. It also increases our motivation to continue to put out high-quality products and deliver the best customer service possible for our subscribers.
Ready for your first kit? Get it here. Looking for the LED Compass Kit? Find it on our Parts Store.