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Everyone stood around with blank stares, not knowing where to start that first day of robot building at Navajo Mountain High School.

The newly formed team only had five weeks before their deadline to enter the annual Utah Regional FIRST Robotics Competition — taking place Friday and Saturday at the Maverik Center in West Valley City— and nobody in the room had actual experience assembling a robot.

But science teacher and team supervisor Daniel Conrad was hopeful. His students translated the instructions and constructed it together, stepping well out of their comfort zones in the process.

"It's been a journey for all of us," Conrad said as the team readied for this week's competition. "The students were just happy to see things they created with their own hands turn into something they didn't think was possible."

Competing in the FIRST Robotics event was something of a twist of fate for students from the 300-strong Navajo Mountain community, perched near the Utah-Arizona border.

Conrad heard about it after meeting Michael Heimlich, professor at Macquarie University in Sydney and coach of an Australian FIRST Robotics team, who visited Navajo Mountain ­— total enrollment, 32 students — as part of an effort to expand the program worldwide.

Through teaching at robot camps, Heimlich eventually would help fund Navajo Mountain's team registration and robot kit for the Utah contest. He said enthusiasm and gratitude shown by students and teachers was "beyond (his) wildest dreams."

"It's so inspiring and it makes it worth the long hours of traveling to find these students and bring the program to them," he said. "It just makes it seem inconsequential in terms of the impact we seem to be having with this school."

Once it formed, interest in the Navajo Mountain team quickly spread, leading Conrad to open it up beyond his engineering class. Nearly half the student body would eventually have a hand in the project, he said.

Given the school's remote location — the nearest hardware store is three hours away in Flagstaff — the team built much of their robot from scrap metal and wood and made prototypes out of cardboard to conserve supplies.

Briana Bitsinnie, a 17-year-old junior on the team, welded metal scraps together to build the cage, which holds in the guts of the machine. She attended every building session, despite a 23-mile commute to and from the school.

Bitsinnie said working with her hands and fine-tuning her welding skills offered a welcome change of pace from other classwork.

"I liked that it was something fun to do and I could also learn at the same time," she said, adding that her outlook on what she can accomplish has changed drastically.

For the competition, robots need to complete several tasks, including catching large gears and driving across the competition field — dubbed "the pit" — then placing gears on pegs and climbing rope.

The Navajo Mountain team corresponded with their Australian supporters and teams from Waterford School in Sandy to test ideas and solve problems during the building process. But students hadn't seen some components in action until they arrived in Salt Lake City Tuesday.

Sophomore Nahida Smith, who helped program Navajo's robot, said watching it move ­— driven by her code — filled her with pride.

"I didn't know I could do this," Smith said.

Upon entering the pit at the Maverik Center Thursday after an eight-and-a-half hour car trek to Salt Lake City, nerves washed over the six teammates. The pit bustled with students typing, tightening and tweaking their entries for practice rounds.

But those jitters eased once an inspector gave the go-ahead to assemble their robot, which weighed in at the regulation 120 pounds. The team seemed to hit a natural rhythm once tools came to hand and the building began.

What started as a daunting effort turned into an empowering and unifying experience, students explained. This week's contest is almost an afterthought, they said. The Navajo Mountain kids all won when they first joined the team.

kgifford@sltrib.com Twitter @kelgiffo