Primary School Students Programming with Real-Time Environmental Sensor Data

Programming is now introduced as an essential skill at a very young age, often through block-based programming environments. Interaction with programs created using such platforms typically occurs through the use of keyboard and mouse. Incorporating environmental data as real-time input to programs through physical computing devices can deliver an engaging programming experience that fosters creativity. However, using such devices with block-based environments often requires significant technical configuration, which can be challenging in the classroom, especially for very young learners. In this paper, we describe our design, development and use of a sensor toolkit and a companion Scratch extension that is very easy for young students to use. The toolkit allows students to focus on constructive exploration while providing teachers with an easy way to incorporate sensor-driven programming lessons in a time-constrained classroom setting. We deployed our toolkit in a primary school classroom with 19 students aged between 7 and 9, and two teachers who were introducing sensor-driven programming for the first time. We report how these young students used our toolkit to control actions in their programs, their post-session views of programming as an interesting and creative task, and the teachers’ perspectives of using the toolkit with young learners.