For children ages 9 to 14 in the Mountain State, now is the time to take out the Legos and build a robot that may compete for a world championship.

After all, the building season is in full swing for the FIRST Lego League.

FIRST is an acronym for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. It is an annual, international competition for elementary and middle school students that challenges children to tackle different real world topics related to science and then design and program robots out of Legos to complete tasks.

"There are about 40 teams statewide, and about half of them are from our area," said Dr. Earl Scime, chairman of the West Virginia University Department of Physics, and team mentor for the First Lego League and the Mountaineer Area Robotics team. "With 16 teams in this area, we're huge."

Scime said the Lego League took off thanks to support and sponsorship of the high school robotics team, which goes by the acronym MARS.

"MARS pays for the Lego kits and the registration and instructs the teachers," Scime said.

Scime and Phil Tucker, an electrical technologist with the WVU Physics Department, initially mentored a FIRST Lego League team in 2003. Together they have taken FLL teams to three consecutive world championships.

"At first we met in a closet at Hodges Hall," Scime said. "Our competition was a disastrous experience -- everything went wrong. The kids loved it."

At the time, both Scime and Tucker had children on the FLL team. Those children are on the MARS team now, and Scime has a child starting FLL.

"I got involved in FLL because this is something I wish I had at my son's age," Scime said.

The teams have five to 10 members. They build a Lego robot that moves autonomously and performs a set of tasks. The 2009 challenge, Smart Move, involves transportation. One of Tucker's favorite past challenges was nanoscience.

"The kids really learned a lot from that one," he said. "Our preparation for that included the kids going to a clean room and seeing atoms through an electron microscope. Imagine seeing that at age 12."

Students learn hands-on computer programming and other technology skills to make the robot perform. They learn research and presentation skills, too.

"I learned public speaking at FLL," said MARS member Luke Scime. "It lets you practice what you learned in school."

The MARS team will sponsor a local scrimmage for the area FIRST Lego League teams Dec. 5 at Brooks Hall on the WVU campus.

The state championship is scheduled for Dec. 19 at Wheeling Jesuit University. The winners of both the FIRST Lego League competition and the First Robotics Competition will compete at a World Festival in Atlanta in the spring.