Wilmette team advances to Lego League championship
SUBMITTED BY GLORIA FOUNTAIN January 10, 2012 1:52PM
Newton Busters team members hold up their earned circular shaped award for winning one of three spots to advance to the state championship Jan. 20 and 21. | Photos courtesy of Gloria Fountain
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Updated: February 13, 2012 8:34AM
An organization called FIRST — an acronym that means For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), founded by inventor Dean Kamen to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology — has brought its annual First Lego League season to Illinois with its 2011 “Food Factor” Challenge.
A team of Wilmette and Glenview youngsters is up to the challenge. The team, called the Newton Busters, has advanced to the Lego League’s state championship, set for Jan. 20 and 21 in Arlington Heights.
This year’s challenge calls for teams of 9- to 14 year-old children to research and present their own creative solutions to one of today’s most relevant topics: How engineering mixes with traditional food sciences to advance food safety.
On Jan. 20, at Forest View Educational Center, 2121 Goebbert Road in Arlington Heights, eight weeks of research and design will culminate in the league’s Illinois State Championship. There 64 teams of children and coaches will demonstrate their problem-solving skills, creative thinking, teamwork, competitive play, sportsmanship and sense of community.
With missions including bone corn harvesting, pest removal, food transportation and elimination of food contamination, teams will have to program their Lego Mindstorms robots to explore the growing questions around how to help people live healthier lives by making our food safer from the farm to the kitchen table. The competition is judged in four areas: project presentation; robot performance; technical design and programming of the robot; and teams application of the league’s core values. The highest honor will go to the team that best exemplifies the spirit and values of the program.
“Every First Lego League Challenge of the last 11 years has helped children discover how imagination and creativity, combined with science and technology, can solve real-world problems,” said Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST.
Last year’s theme was medicine and engineering related to the human body. Next year’s them is issues for older adults.
The Kraft Food Research Center’s microbiology department helped provide resources to the Wilmette and Glenview team, as did the Costco store in Glenview and the Jewel supermarket, also in Glenview.
The team is now creating a Youtube video about food safety. It also is communicating with the first lady, Michelle Obama in her project about child nutrition, and reaching out to the Grocery Manufacturers Association and Food Marketing Institute.
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