Kelp Farming Toolkit in FIRST LEGO League Challenge
The Robricks Columbia River Mission Solvers is a team of fourth and fifth graders at Lewis & Clark Elementary School in Richland, Washington, who are participating in the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Challenge. They have qualified for the state tournament on January 18 in Spokane.
The FLL competition has two components: an innovation project and a robot mission challenge. The innovation project theme is “Submerged,” and the technology ideas must help ocean explorers.
The Robricks Columbia River Mission Solvers has developed a decision-making toolkit for determining the reliability of a kelp site, with support from Dr. Schery Umanzor from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Kelp requires suitable conditions for growth, and the team’s Site Assessment Toolkit (SAT) enables users to check environmental parameters (e.g., salinity, nitrogen and sunlight) and map the ocean.