For this term in Design and Technology ,Year 4 had the task of creating a mindfulness timer. Our brief, following a very important letter from Miss Coleman was as follows:
- It had to be on a micro-bit and use a computing programme software
- It had to last between 30 seconds and 1 minute
We started our project by exploring what the term mindfulness is and how this could be achieved. We took part in a short breathing exercise to experience what a mindfulness moment would be like so we knew what we were trying to achieve. We agreed that it had to be a calming moment that allows someone to feel relaxed which can be used at times of stress.
Later in our lesson, we were sent a letter about our design brief from Miss Coleman. She was looking for a mindfulness timer that we could use at school to allow children to have a mindfulness moment and gave us strict instructions to follow. We then came up with a class design brief and wrote this down so we knew what to do.
Next, we went to the computing room and got to explore coding and applying these to the micro-bits. We recapped our previous knowledge of using Scratch to create a program before having a go ourselves to build one for the mindfulness timer. We used a different programme to achieve this and programmed our timers to count backwards by pressing the A button and also added a reset program by pressing B which cleared the timer. Once tested, we downloaded the programmes onto the micro-bit to see how it would look.
Afterwards, we explored what brand identity is and played a game to see how many logos we could recognise. We saw that brands use a logo that represents them and their products and our task was to create one that was linked to mindfulness so that we could promote our mindfulness timers. We spoke about using calming colours and images linked to relaxation so our audience would know what our product was trying to achieve.
Lastly, we reflected on and completed some evaluation of the whole process of creating a mindfulness timer. We discussed what were the most interesting parts or what was the most challenging part of the whole process.
Well done Year 4! What was your favourite part of our lessons this week?
