Abstract
BACKGROUND: Students' learning stress adaptation is crucial. Research on design thinking in stress adaptation and academic emotions is still lacking. METHODS: This study developed "Stress Relief Design" instructional activities using a mixed-method research design, including student academic emotion journals and a stress relief agreement survey for data collection. This study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee and conducted in accordance with ethical guidelines. Participants were 24 students, aged 10 to 12, recruited through open enrollment. The instructional activities were conducted in a holiday workshop format, consisting of fifteen sessions over 5 days, with three sessions per day. RESULTS: The results indicated that students predominantly experienced positive academic emotions (joy, pride, hope, and relaxation), with negative emotions (anxiety and boredom) being less common. Students reported that the course helped them relieve psychological stress. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, design thinking is suitable for application in stress adaption courses and creates a learning environment that supports students' academic emotions, making it a critical learning focus for modern students. This study contributes to the academic research on the application of design thinking in elementary school health education and learning stress adaptation, as well as on academic emotions.