Students ages nine to fourteen truly are the engineers and problem solvers of the future.

We caught up with the Lego team from T.C. Cherry elementary preparing for this weekend's contest.

The clock is ticking toward competition day for the Kentucky FIRST Lego
League.

"It incorporates science, technology, global awareness through
innovation ..all that ties together but main focus people see is the
robotics."

While some students do last minute run-throughs with the robots….
"I set up the robot and make sure the settings are right so when
we turn it on it hits what we want."

Others are making sure they have the explanations down pat.

This is the first year T.C. Cherry has had a team, so there was a lot of
prep work involved.

In September, Lego groups received details of the challenge.

The theme of this year's event is "Smart Move". Teams must confront some of today's transportation safety and efficiency problems

In addition to building a robot to perform various tasks, teams will be
judged on teamwork, the research project, and technical/design aspects.

"I think it's really cool that I've learned this much in programming a robot. It's really cool watching it go and knock over stuff."

E.J. even says he's decided to be an engineer when he grows up.

Forty-two teams will take part in the competition Saturday at 9:00 a.m.
at E.A. Diddle Arena. The awards ceremony begins at 4:30 that afternoon.