RALEIGH -- LEGO awarded half a dozen schools in the Wake County system with funds to take part in an innovative, education program. The schools will be among the first in the country to use the program.

"You don't only get to have fun, but secretly you get to learn," said River Sepinuck, a first-grader at A.B. Combs Elementary.

The Raleigh-based elementary school has been testing out the program for the past five years. The principal said the hands-on approach to education better prepares students for the future.

"Great opportunities to share ideas begin to happen, leadership skills begin to surface,” said Muriel Summers, principal at A.B. Combs Elementary School. “Its like nothing I've ever seen. There is something to be said about the power of that little brick."

Students tackle challenges to enhance their science, technology, engineering and math skills.

"We provide these tools where they're able to attach these knowledge, these abstract concepts, to their knowledge landscape and then forever it's there's and it changes the way they learn," said LEGO Education President Stephan Turnipseed.

WCPSS matched an $80,000 grant help fund the new program.

Students will begin working with the LEGO program in kindergarten and continue on the path through high school.

In central Wake County, grant money will go to A.B. Combs Elementary, Centennial Middle, and Athens Drive High. In eastern Wake County, it will go to Hodge Road Elementary, East Wake Middle, and Knightdale High.