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National IWITTS is excited to bring you PicoCricket Kits to engage your female students in math, science and engineering principles!

PicoCrickets are tiny computers that can make things spin, light up, and play music! As your female students work on PicoCricket project themes, they learn important math, science, and engineering principles -- and gain a deeper understanding of the process of design and invention. Your girls (or boys!) can plug lights, motors, sensors, and other devices into a PicoCricket, then program them to react, interact, and communicate. Let your students’ creativity thrive with the many possibilities that PicoCrickets provide!

For example, they can make a cat and program it to purr when someone pets it. Or they can make a birthday cake and program it to play a song when someone blows out the candles. While many robotics classes are organized around engineering challenges, you can organize PicoCricket classes and workshops around shared themes. For example, for the theme of Musical Instruments, your students create interactive inventions that play melodies and rhythms. Rather than culminating in a competition among robots, your workshops can finish with an exhibition of projects.

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PicoCricket Workshop Themes:

PicoCrickets can be used in a wide variety of activities – and thus appeal to learners with different interests, backgrounds, and styles. The best themes are broad enough to give everyone freedom to work on projects they care about, but specific enough to foster a sense of shared experience among all participants. Click on the links for some examples of themes: A Day in the Park, Smart House, Celebrations, Wearables, Painting Machines, Chain Reactions, and Insects.

Click on a video below to download and watch the PicoCricket in action:

PicoCricket Overview
Demonstration by Mitchel Resnick of the
MIT Media Lab (requires Real Player)
Invention at Play
Empowering kids to explore and invent
with digital technologies
(requires Quicktime)

Girl Scout Workshop
A math and science camp using an
early version of the Crickets
(requires Quicktime or
Windows Media Player)
Invention at Play
Empowering kids to explore and invent
with digital technologies
(requires Quicktime)

Note: 1 PicoCricket Kit serves 1-3 students. Schools can reduce cost by teaching students in groups and buying workshop kits. 1 PicoCricket Workshop kit serves 10-15 students. Each PicoCricket Workshop Kit contains enough materials for 5 groups of 2-3 kids to build one project per group. For more information on running PicoCricket workshops, click here.

The PicoCricket Kit was developed by the MIT Media Lab, who also created the LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ robotics kits. Both kits teach students robotics and programming principles. While LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ appeal more to boys, the PicoCricket Kit is designed for making artistic creations with lights, sound, music, and motion, which appeals to girls, too.

Click the image to the left
to see what goes into a
PicoCricket Kit.

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Tips for running a PicoCricket Workshop:

The best way to organize a PicoCricket class or workshop is to create the atmosphere of an artist’s studio or inventor’s workshop. Rather then giving your students a fixed set of materials to accomplish a pre-determined task, PicoCricket Kits provide a rich collection of materials and encourage participants to experiment, explore, and express themselves on projects related to a shared theme.

1. Make sure that the room has space not only for working on computers (1-2 students per computer) but also constructing with physical materials. Also consider setting up an LCD projector to demonstrate how to program PicoCrickets.
2. Set up tables with art & craft supplies (such as construction paper, popsicle sticks, beads, aluminum foil, straws, and natural materials, like leaves), as well as LEGO® bricks, and PicoCricket devices, both of which are included in the PicoCricket Workshop Kit.
3. Split up your students to work together in small groups (each PicoCricket Workshop Kit serves 5 groups of 2-3 students per group).
4. There is no pre-defined sequence of steps: each group moves back-andforth between designing, building, programming, and decorating their projects.
5. Your workshop can last from an hour to many hours over several days. For the best experience, it is important that participants have time to test and revise their projects over several iterations.
6. When students are finished with the projects, you can take apart the projects and re-use the PicoCrickets and other electronic components while the students take home their craft creations.
7. The PicoCricket kits are intended to be used over and over. When you use the PicoCrickets in a classroom, consider "preserving" student projects through photos and videos. This way, you'll only need to replenish the lowcost craft materials at your local craft store.

Click Here for an Excel List of components in the individual PicoCricket Kit and PicoCricket Workshop Kit.

Quantity	Price	# Students Served
Individual Kit	$250	1-3 per kit
1-9 Workshop Kits	$999	10-15 per kit
10+ Workshop Kits   (Save 10%!)	$900	10-15 per kit

Shipping Information
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Please Note: This product
cannot be returned

PicoCrickets Individual Kits
Item Number: EDTK077 $250.00

PicoCrickets Workshop Kits
Item Number: EDTK078 $999.00, 10 for $9,000.00