To bad Arduino is not such a thing teached at University
If they did it would be taught.
Yes this sounds like a perfectly doable project.
You need resistors on your LEDs to limit the current, typically you should use 220R (220 ohms).
How is your sensor interfaced? Many are I2C, if so you need two resistors connected on the signal lines to +5. So that is a 4K7 from clock to +5 and the dame from data to +5.