Twelve teams and their robots are converging to duke it out for a district title today.

The First Lego League district qualifying tournament runs from 9 a.m. until about 4 p.m. It includes groups of local middle school students vying for a chance to make it to the next level of competition.

One of the teams competing is the Lego Guards of Meadow Vista. The group’s seven home-schooled students are the reigning world champions who hope to once again make it to the international stage.

This year, they plan to present a science project about an incident that hit too close to home.

When the 49 Fire burned through Auburn in August, two of the team members remember that their homes were threatened.

Aydan Potts said his family was forced to evacuate from their home and that his mom’s cell phone was constantly ringing.

He said it was difficult to gather essential information, such as which roads were open, where people could go to find shelter and how people could help.

“It was just chaos,” Aydan recalled.

So the team spent several months following the fire interviewing local news outlets and county representatives asking how things could be done better.

On Sunday, they will present Sierra EARTH, which stands for Emergency Access Real Time Hub. EARTH is a software hub the will maintain essential information on one site.

Entities such as Pacific Gas & Electric, Placer County Water Agency, Caltrans would be sent SMS messages every week asking if their contact information was correct. One person would just have to type, OK, and the information would be automatically updated on the EARTH site.

During an emergency, the public could access the site to post information and see various posts in real time.

The team said they hope the one stop for emergency information will help calm the chaos during an emergency.

The Lego Guards will have some competition.

Dave Parker, who coaches the Peg Pals, a group of Weimar Hills School fifth- to seventh-graders, said his team has come up with plans to solve local transportation problems.

The team has devised three solutions to pick up and drop off congestion that occurs on school grounds during the year.

He said the students have immediate solutions of using nearby park-and-ride lots as drop-off points and have devised safe ways for kids to then walk to campus.

Parker said the third solution is the team’s long-term goal.

The students believe that placing four-wheel steering technology inside school buses will greatly help their maneuvering ability. Parker said the technology is in place in buses in Europe and the team will present a way it can happen in their own town.

Ultimately, Parker, who is in his sixth year of coaching LEGO robotics teams, said the projects and group work are something many engineering-inclined students love.

“Students don’t get to do much engineering until they get to college,” Parker said. “That’s a long way for kids who have a natural knack for engineering. So with this, they’re allowed to jump into it earlier.”

The First Lego League district-qualifying tournament will start at 9 a.m. Nov. 15 at Sierra Hills School gym on 16505 Placer Hills Road in Meadow Vista.

Jenifer Gee can be reached at jeniferg@goldcountrymedia.com.