engineering

Programmable Cricket

Programmable Cricket is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Programmable Cricket rather than just read about it. In short: Programmable Crickets, known commercially as PicoCrickets, are robotic toys in the form of programmable bricks. They are used to construct artistic projects.

Key takeaways

Programmable Cricket belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Programmable Cricket to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Programmable Cricket from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Programmable Crickets, known commercially as PicoCrickets, are robotic toys in the form of programmable bricks. They are used to construct artistic projects. Crickets were developed at MIT Media Lab, and were launched commercially in Montreal in 2006. Playful Invention Company (PICO), co-founded by Mitchel Resnick, Brian Silverman and Paula Bonta, was formed with financial support from Lego Group, the Danish construction toy manufacturer, to commercialize the toy. As of 2008, PICO also markets a toy for use with the Scratch programming language, another MIT Media Lab development.

References

External links PicoCricket commercial site MIT Spectrum, Winter 1998 "Smart Toys - Mitch Resnick builds a toy chest of learning tools".

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Programmable Cricket

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Programmable Cricket claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Programmable Cricket before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Programmable Cricket ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Programmable Cricket

In research: Programmable Cricket appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Programmable Cricket in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Programmable Cricket is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Companies based in Montreal, Construction toys, Educational hardware, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Programmable Cricket outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Programmable Cricket in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Programmable Cricket means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Programmable Cricket out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Programmable Cricket in simple terms?

Programmable Crickets, known commercially as PicoCrickets, are robotic toys in the form of programmable bricks. They are used to construct artistic projects.

Why does Programmable Cricket matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Programmable Cricket?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Programmable Cricket.