PICO products are based on research and ideas from the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab, a leader in the design of innovative educational technologies and creative learning environments.

Lifelong Kindergarten researchers, in collaboration with the LEGO Company, created the first “programmable bricks,”squeezing computational power into LEGO bricks. This research led to the LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ robotics kits, now used by millions of kids around the world to build and program their own robots.

The PicoCricket grows out of this same research tradition, but with greater emphasis on artistic expression. Cricket activities have been developed and refined as part of the Beyond Black Boxes project and the PIE Network, funded by the National Science Foundation. PICO reengineered and extended Cricket technologies and activities to create the PicoCricket Kit.

The PicoCricket is a new breed of invention kit that integrates art and technology to spark creative thinking in girls and boys 8 years and older. To see how children (and adults) are using the PicoCricket, visit our Community page.

Also based on research from the MIT Media Lab, our newest product, the PicoBoard, is a sensor board that works with MIT’s Scratch programming language. With the PicoBoard, you can connect real-world sensors to your on-screen Scratch projects.

Find out about the people behind PICO.