Brush Prairie team among those to qualify for FIRST Lego championship

Brush Prairie — The Masterminds, a FIRST Lego League team, was one of seven Clark County robotics teams that qualified to compete in the Intel Oregon Championship tournaments in January in Hillsboro, Ore. This year’s challenge was “Food Factor.” Teams explored food safety and examined the possible points of contamination for food and found ways to prevent or combat contamination. Each team built and programmed a robot using Lego Mindstorms NXT to solve a set of food-safety missions. The Masterminds presented its research findings at the Battle Ground Library in November. On Dec. 2, the team won a grand championship in a qualifying tournament at Salmon Creek Elementary School. Other teams qualifying for the championships are the Soggy Cloverteers and Klick, both of Battle Ground; the Cardinal Minds, the Salmon Creek Huskybots and the Purple Pandas, all of Vancouver; and the Camas Mechanikidz.