(VIDEO) Alice Smith Team Places Second in State Lego League Tournament

Team G.O. Nutz continued its steak of success in Lego robotics competition, placing second in Saturday’s First Lego League State Championship.

In addition to the second-place overall finish, the team was ranked first in the area of Core Values and received the Judge’s Award at the tournament, which took place at the Washington Technology Magnet School in St. Paul.

The Alice Smith students competed against 47 other teams in the tournament. The team that placed first overall advanced to the national competition in California.

Team G.O. Nutz—the “G.O.” stands for “Germ Overseers,” a reference to the food safety theme of this year’s competition—is made up of sixth graders Brandon Dummer, Sophia Haley, Ian Twogood, Natalie DenHartog, and Jane Nelson and fifth grader Grace Wallace-Jackson. Ron Dummer, of Hopkins, coaches the team.

Their success in Saturday’s tournament follows on the heels of a dominating performance in the regional tournament—where Team G.O. Nutz scored first in five of six categories, as well as first overall.

In the First Lego League Competition, students must build a robot out of Legos and program it to do different missions. They also must find a creative solution to a problem related to this year’s theme, food safety.

As part of Team G.O. Nutz’ research for the project, they visited General Mills and interviewed Pat Quigg, the company’s director of quality regulations operations. The solution they presented at the competition proposed using a “smart active package” containing nanosensors that can detect bacteria in peanut butter.

Click the video above to watch the team’s presentation or visit the G.O. Nutz website to learn more about the team.