The sensing bridge between perceptuomotor experience and scientific investigation

How can computational media support young learners to collect and model measurement data from their lived and contextualized experiences in the classroom? While Tinker and Papert [1] discussed children's use of electronic sensors in scientific inquiry as early as the 1980s, children rarely have opportunity to create sensing devices that interact with real-time computational models as part of the science curriculum. I present a prototype of a heart rate system that integrates littleBits electronic building blocks [2] with the NetLogo modeling platform [3]. This is a proof-ofconcept design for what it might look like for children and K-8 teachers to have greater agency in using sensors to collect and model perceptuomotor information that could otherwise be difficult to measure or represent.