It was a meeting of LEGO brawn and robotic brains on Saturday when local students competed in the FIRST LEGO League Tournament at Kealing Middle School.

About 250 Central Texas kids faced off to see who could build the better robot.

The creations from these nine- to 14-year-olds had to solve problems and find a way to complete challenges.

The local tournament is sponsored by National Instruments and is designed to get students excited about science and engineering.

"We're really doing this because National Instruments has a commitment to engineering education. It's through programs like this that we're able to inspire students to basically get excited about math, science and engineering," Kylee Kesler of National Instruments said.

FIRST LEGO League is an international program that involves about 60,000 students worldwide. It's a partnership between FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and the LEGO Company.