Is water considered "a food".

[natterbus]

If it has to fall in one of those food categories, does that mean the presentation should be specific to a single food? For example, to use inventions that already exist, a refrigerator thermometer would keep ALL refrigerated food safer or an antimicrobial cutting board would keep ANY raw fruits and vegetables safer that may have been cut on it after cutting meat. Would these be outside the scope of the project assignment (had they not already been invented of course )

We don't have a project yet and I don't want the kids heading down the wrong path. I would assume one could then say "a refrigerator thermometer would keep your milk safer...here's why" or "a microbial cutting board will keep your fesh cut apples safer" but that alters the research avenue quite a bit and requires manipulating the intent of the presentation. Natterbus

[TimTedrow]

Originally Posted by natterbus

If it has to fall in one of those food categories, does that mean the presentation should be specific to a single food?

Simple answer in no. Your team's problem/solution should fall into one or more of the those food categories. If your team's problem was food contamination in the school cafeteria and they invented the quantum flux particle detector to find all food contamination and convert it instantly into oxygen while providing a fresh clean smell, that would be an acceptable project.

[someonewhobikes]

Originally Posted by natterbus

If it has to fall in one of those food categories, does that mean the presentation should be specific to a single food?

From the project instructions (or are they rules?):

Pick one food item for your team to research. Keep it simple; pick a food with fewer than 7 ingredients. You want to find out about every step your team’s food took in its journey from ground (where it was grown) to table (where it was eaten). You want to learn about all the possible contamination and spoiling problems. You will want to learn how these problems are detected and prevented now.

I've never been a project judge, but I do suspect that your kids wouldn't get dinged for mentioning the benefits of their solution for other foods. otoh they've got a lot of things to research and not much time, so my tendency would be to steer them to a single food, in depth. I didn't have to with our teams; they picked "simple" foods (pork & chicken).

Make sure they understand the scoring rubrics; the research section calls for depth.

[Robomom]

Originally Posted by TimTedrow

Simple answer in no. Your team's problem/solution should fall into one or more of the those food categories. If your team's problem was food contamination in the school cafeteria and they invented the quantum flux particle detector to find all food contamination and convert it instantly into oxygen while providing a fresh clean smell, that would be an acceptable project.

My team had emailed a question to FIRST about the project and the response from FIRST indicates you would need to choose one specific food from the school cafeteria that benefited from the quantum flux particle detector to research even if all foods would benefit. I replaced the part relating to our team's idea with XXXXXX

"Just make sure that you pick a food that you would XXXXXXX. Just suggestions but the Project write up does ask your team to choose one food and solve a problem relating to that food. Perhaps, XXXXXX??? Just make sure you make your clear about relating your solution back to a certain type of food."

Depending on your project judges, they might not be that picky. But FIRST's intent is for the kids to research all of the ingredients of one food item in detail.