Moving Food from Field to Meal One Lego at a Time

If you want to know how to get a delicious and fresh head of lettuce from the farm to the table without contaminating it with E coli there is one simple thing to do.  Ask a fourth grader. They'll tell you to keep it clean, away from meat and to wash your hands before handling it because once the bug is on the leaf it is impossible to get it off.  In the case of contamination they have a solution for that too.  You can heat it to really high temperatures to kill the germs, and then put it back in the refrigerator.  Funny I don't think I ever would have considered that. That's why you should ask a fourth grader and not me.  They know just enough to be dangerous, but not too much to stymie their creativity.

If you do ask a fourth grader you likely won't be breaking new ground. The First Lego League (FLL) asked them, and other kids from kindergarten to sixth grade, to consider food safety in their annual robotics competition.  The competition consisted of a food safety research project, adherence to the FLL core values of teamwork and sportsmanship, and the development of an autonomous Lego robot to complete food safety themed missions.

The great thing about the competition was that kids were asked to do something fun and educational, they did it, then got actual feedback on their efforts. All of the judges for the competition were volunteers from the science, technology, engineering, business or education community.  All of the judges were also very good at drawing the best out of the kids while still being critical and providing valuable feedback.

I think kids are pretty used to getting patted on the back these days but the art of kicking them in the pants is sometimes lost.  The Lego competition I saw today managed to do both well and in the process fostered interest and enthusiasm for science and engineering.

To close I'll report that in the elite eight of the head to head robot competition, team  "Fire Emblem" was edged by "Lego Men" with a final score of 84-87. The loss ended the team's day of competition but the whole experience may have helped spark a lifelong enthusiasm for science, technology and engineering.