Students to apply research, robotics to food safety

Local students ages 9 to 14 will compete in Saturday's FIRST LEGO League Food Factor Challenge, a state-qualifying robotics contest at Timberlake High from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event is free and open to the public

Thirteen teams and about 100 youth are expected to compete for one of five slots to the state contest Dec. 19 at the University of Idaho in Moscow. There are 151 FLL teams from throughout the state that will be competing in 11 qualifying tournaments.

Teams must conduct research and build and program a LEGO robot to explore the ways in which food can become contaminated - from exposure to insects and creatures, to unsterile processing and transportation, to unsanitary preparation and unsafe storage - and then propose real-world solutions for preventing or combating these contaminates.