This year’s First Lego League Competition was held on Saturday, November 12, 2011 at Penn State Behrend’s Junker Center. Each year teams are given a theme for which they must do a research project and program their robot to do missions based on that theme. This year’s theme was Food Factor. Each team researched food safety and tried to come up with a solution to a food safety problem. Our two RAMS teams, coached by Mrs. Jackie Wolford, were The Electronic Buzz and The Robotic Jackets. The Electronic Buzz consisted of 8^th grader Patrick VanMeter, 7^th graders Logan Erdman, Austin Foster, and Devon Hall, and 6^th graders David Mascaro, Dominic Shaffer, Ben Stewart, Michael Wagner, and Jake Wiczynski. The Robotic Jackets’ team members included 8^th grader Zach Younkin, 7^th graders Morgan Earley, Jill Koeck, Jordan Stancil, Nate Ward, and Michael Wolff, and 6^th graders Dairen Hyde, Jesse Illig, Tim Lehman, and Tanner Bryan. The Electronic Buzz researched how to properly dispose of prescription medicines so that they do not get into our drinking water. The Robotic Jackets researched food poisoning specific to restaurants and ways to avoid food contamination. Both teams did an excellent job with their research and performing their skits in front of the judges.

                In preparation for the robot portion of the competition, teams had to build a robot using Lego blocks and program the robots to do the assigned missions. Some of the Food Factor missions included collecting corn from a harvester, catching fish, turning a thermometer from hot to cold, and dumping bacteria into a sink (all of which were made of Legos). Out of the 40 teams that competed, The Robotic Jackets finished 22^nd and the Electronic Buzz tied for 5^th place overall. Mrs. Wolford would like to say congratulations to all team members and a big thank you to all the parents involved!