Lifelong Kindergarten :: MIT Media Lab

Crickets

Visit Crickets website

Crickets are small programmable devices that can make things spin, light up, and play music. You can plug lights, motors, and sensors into a Cricket, then write computer programs to tell them how to react and behave. With Crickets, you can create musical sculptures, interactive jewelry, dancing creatures, and other artistic inventions -- and learn important math, science, and engineering ideas in the process.

Crickets are based on more than a decade of NSF-funded educational research. Lifelong Kindergarten researchers collaborated with the LEGO company to create the first "programmable bricks," squeezing computational power into LEGO bricks. This research led to the LEGO MindStorms robotics kits, now used by millions of people around the world. While LEGO MindStorms is designed especially for making robots, Crickets are designed especially for making artistic creations. Crickets were refined in collaboration with the Playful Invention and Exploration (PIE) museum network, and are now sold as a product through the Playful Invention Company (PICO).

Mitchel Resnick Natalie Rusk Brian Silverman Robbie Berg

papers

date		author	title
	2008	Rusk, N., Resnick, M., Berg, R., & Pezalla-Granlund, M.	New Pathways into Robotics: Strategies for Broadening Participation. Journal of Science Education and Technology
	2007	Resnick, M.	Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society. Learning and Leading with Technology
	2006	Resnick, M.	Computer as Paint Brush: Technology, Play, and the Creative Society. In Singer, D., Golikoff, R., and Hirsh-Pasek, K. (eds.), Play = Learning: How play motivates and enhances children's cognitive and social-emotional growth. Oxford University Press.
	2005	Pezalla-Granlund, M., Rusk, N., Resnick, M., Berg, R.	Rethinking Robotics: Approaches and Ideas Association of Science-Technology Centers conference workshop
	2005	Resnick, M. and Silverman, B.	Some Reflections on Designing Construction Kits for Kids. Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children conference, Boulder, CO.
	2005	Rusk, N., Berg, R. and Resnick, M.	Rethinking Robotics: Engaging Girls in Creative Engineering. Proposal to the National Science Foundation.
	2004	Resnick, M.	Edutainment? No Thanks. I Prefer Playful Learning. Associazione Civita Report on Edutainment.
	2000	Resnick, M., et al.	The PIE Network: Promoting Science Inquiry and Engineering through Playful Invention and Exploration with New Digital Technologies. Proposal to the National Science Foundation.
	1996	Resnick, M., Berg, R., Eisenberg, M., Turkle, S. and Martin, F.	Beyond Black Boxes: Bringing Transparency and Aesthetics Back to Scientific Instruments. Proposal to the National Science Foundation (project funded 1997-1999).
	1996	Resnick, M., Martin, F., Sargent, R. and Silverman, B.	Programmable Bricks: Toys to Think With. IBM Systems Journal, vol. 35, no. 3-4, pp. 443-452.
	1993	Resnick, M.	Behavior Construction Kits. Communications of the ACM, vol. 36, no. 7, pp. 64-71 (July 1993).
	1991	Resnick, M.	Xylophones, Hamsters, and Fireworks: The Role of Diversity in Constructionist Activities. Constructionism, edited by I. Harel & S. Papert. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing.