Body motion and early algebra

This paper focuses on the emergence of abstraction through the use of a new kind of motion detector — WiiGraph — with 11-year old children. In the selected episodes, the children used the sensor to create three simultaneous graphs of position vs. time: two graphs for the motion of each hand and a third one corresponding to their difference. They explored relationships that can be ascribed to an equation of the type A – B = C. We propose two distinct paths for the attainment of abstraction, one focused on working with unknowns lacking sensible qualities, and another that involves navigating a surplus of sensible qualities. This study is a case study for the latter, which we portray as a process of opening channels of flow and exchange among sensible qualities, such that these cease to be self-enclosed and start to configure a plane of unity, which, far from denying their differences, brings them into mutual circulation.