In the basement of coach Shannon Jefferson’s home in Charlotte, from October to January, nine young scientists could be found working furiously to program robots, build LEGO structures and conduct experiments.

Decked out in red and yellow tie-dye shirts, the team of home-schooled children who call themselves the Flaming Robo Duckies spent hours on end preparing to compete in the First LEGO League (FLL) robotics competition.

This was the first year the Robo Duckies competed, but they took first place at regionals, advancing to the Jan. 21 state competition in Greensboro. There, they won a trophy for best teamwork, though they didn’t place in the competition.

Each September, the FLL releases a challenge to kids 9 to 14, based on a real-world concern. The challenge has three components: the robot game, a project and FLL core values. This year, the theme is Food Factor. Contestants must integrate the issue of food contamination into project research and find a possible solution to a problem.

Once the FLL challenge has been released, teams of up to 10 begin working on the robot game by programming an autonomous robot, which must perform tasks on a playing field to score points.

The Flaming Robo Duckies – Drew Rumble, Gracie Rumble, Dorian Jefferson, Nina Kouchi, Hunter Kouchi, Skylar Kruzewski, Aileena, Will Silander and Zachary Kruzewski – have been building, programming and perfecting their two robots (one for backup), since October.

“It was challenging because we had to make sure both (robots) were exactly the same,” said Will Silander, 12, who was in charge of programming the robots.

The group used LEGOs to create the robots’ outside body, and a programmable LEGO computer to control the robot. The team then used the robot to clean up bacteria, transport food and gather supplies, all made of LEGOs, said Sheila Rumble, a team coach.

“The robot is the hook to get them to do the research,” Rumble said. “It’s centered around food safety topics.”

The next segment of the challenge: identifying a food contamination problem and creating an innovative solution. Contestants pick a food and follow its journey from farm to table, learning how it might get contaminated, said Nina Kouchi, 12. She was in charge of doling out research assignments to her teammates.

The Flaming Robo Duckies used grocery-store strawberries and created a washer to clean them. That device used an agitation blade at the bottom of a stainless steel bowl to stir water in which berries were soaking, Nina said. The team created a second device that relied on stronger agitation from a food processor.

To test how well each device (and homemade cleaning solutions) cleaned the berries, the team swabbed the berries and placed the swabs into petri dishes, waiting for bacteria to grow. They also swabbed a dirty kitchen floor, sure to show contamination, so they could compare the bacteria amounts.

One factor the team said their experiment did not account for was the separation of good and bad bacteria grown in petri dishes.

While participants were preparing and competing, they also had to focus on the third component of the competition, which was to reiterate the league’s core values. Those include teamwork; “coopertition” (meaning the combination of cooperation and competing); and gracious professionalism, said Jefferson. At competitions, the teams are evaluated on their robot’s performance, their presentation, teamwork and robot design.

Each team member has a specific role, from research note taker to presentation or project leader, and everyone is closely involved in organizing the presentation, she said.

The most difficult part of the challenge was “not getting frustrated” when they only had a few weeks left before state competition, said Zachary Kruzewski, 11.

To present their work at the state level, the team came up with a rap skit. As Nina stomped her foot to keep a steady beat, each team member took turns rapping and holding up small signs.

“There are a million germs on your food. That’s disgusting and that’s not good,” she rapped.

Team members said they all learned one thing from the project: “Always wash your fruit.”

As a close to their season, the Duckies entered the FLL Global Innovation Award competition, in which 200,000 FLL participants can win votes online for their projects. Theirs is at http://fllinnovationaward.firstlegoleague.org/bacteria-blaster-blender-attachment.

First Lego League

To learn how to create an FLL team: www.firstlegoleague.org.

World Festival

Winners from each state tournament advance to the World Festival, April 25-28 in St. Louis.

Food facts

Each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control, about 48 million people in the United States get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die from food-borne diseases.