Putting Food Safety FIRST

For my first post about something other than myself, I will be promoting the FIRST organization. Recently, I learned that the FIRST LEGO League challenge this year would be on food safety, thanks to a post by Dr. Ben Chapman on Barfblog. 

My son, Michael, participated in FIRST in high school and I think it is a great organization. For middle and high school students who are interested in any of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) areas, FIRST is an organization where you can find others who share your same interests. It takes science and problem solving, organizes it into a competition, and teaches students some valuable life lessons along the way. It will help prepare them to work with others and solve problems. I have not seen another organization for youth that I thought gives them better preparation for life as an adult in the working world.

There are different levels of competition in FIRST, depending on the students' grade level. This year, the FIRST LEGO League (for students age 9-14) is having a competition with a food safety theme. I hope some of some of the young scientists involved in the competition will one day go on to solve problems with will prove of great benefit to humanity, including delivering safe food to a hungry population. Maybe one of these young students, who is not used to looking at problems in the same way adults do, will come up with a solution that can be quickly put into action on farms or in production plants. As recent outbreaks have shown, we can't come up with solutions fast enough.

I can't make a blog entry about FIRST without giving a shout out to the students on Team Prion at Grimsley High School in Greensboro, North Carolina. My son participated on the team during the 2009-2010 school year. Go Whirlies!

Good luck to all of this year's competitors in the FIRST competitions. Thanks in advance for the ways that you will benefit humanity in the future.