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A team of eighth-grade Palo Alto girls placed first among 65 teams Sunday, May 20, in the First LEGO League robotics competition at Legoland in Carlsbad.

The girls, students JLS and Jordan middle schools as well as Girls Middle School, have met Sundays and Wednesdays since the beginning of the school year to build a robot able to move a LEGO trailer, catch a ring off a ramp, follow a line and dump pieces of LEGO "food" onto a small LEGO table.

Sponsored by a local Girl Scout troop, team members called themselves the Palo Alto Androids. They built and programmed the robot using a LEGO NXT kit and LEGO Mindstorm, required of all teams in the competition, according to parent Tanya Buxton.

The team is coached by parents Alex Crichton and Ken Shark and consists of team members Maddy Buxton, Katie Shark, Chloe Mo, Jesse Kim, Catherine Crichton and Ashley Crichton.

— Chris Kenrick

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