Calming LEDs: create a simple device with micro:bit
This challenge has been written by Micro:bit Educational Foundation and is part of the EU CODE WEEK CHALLENGES.
Target Audience
- Students (6-12)
Experience
- Beginner
Duration
- 20 minutes
Recommended Materials
- a micro:bit device and battery pack (if available)
- a laptop or tablet with which you can visit Microsoft MakeCode and Youtube
- microbit.org for the activity resources
Purpose
- To design a simple digital artefact with a helpful purpose
- To explore sequences and animations and how they work
- To test and debug simple code
- To iterate a design by making the animations faster or slower
Description
Students create a digital device using LEDs that can help them to regulate their breathing and feel calmer. They will be asked to write some simple code, exploring animations and sequences.
Instructions
- The goal is to create a working Calming LED device that you can use to regulate your breathing. This device can be created on a physical micro:bit board, or on the simulator in the MakeCode editor.
- The challenge can be completed by using the MakeCode editor and writing a simple sequence of code as shown in the video/screenshot.
- To develop the challenge, students can explore different animations and get creative with the animation they would like to see to help them feel calm or happy.
- More information and video instructions at this link.
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You prefer to share your challenge(s) on Facebook? EU Code Week will pin a new Challenge post on their Facebook page . You then just need to comment on the post with the link to your work.
Winners will be selected and offered Code Week goodies every day during Code Week between 9 – 24 October and announced on our Instagram and Facebook channels, so don't forget to check your notifications regularly.
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Example
Visit this page for instructions and videos of the completed challenge plus how to code: https://microbit.org/news/2020-05-01/microbit-at-home-calming-leds/
Click here to download this challenge as a word document.
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The EU Code Week website for schools is a service supported by the European Commission
Except where stated otherwise, content made available on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license
Licensing under Creative Commons licenses does not of itself affect the ownership of the copyright
Content from third party websites is subject to their own copyright restrictions; please refer to the site of origin for more information.
The EU Code Week website for schools is a service supported by the European Commission
Except where stated otherwise, content made available on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license
Licensing under Creative Commons licenses does not of itself affect the ownership of the copyright
Content from third party websites is subject to their own copyright restrictions; please refer to the site of origin for more information.