BOISE- It's small, it's speedy and it may be the way of the future. Treasure Valley students are getting national recognition for their little hydrogen-cell car. It may not look big, but the ideas behind them sure are.

"Each team started out with their motor and this fuel cell," said eighth grader, Alex Baca, one of the master minds behind the design of the car. "And it was up to you to design some kind of car."

Five students from the Treasure Valley Math and Science Center at Riverglen Junior High school are bringing home the overall first place trophy in the National Alternative Fuel Cell Competition for their little hydrogen cell vehicle.

"This year we got a monster trophy, so we can show everybody this is what we did and this is what we got," said Eddie Smith, an eighth grader on the team.

The US Department of Energy sponsored this week's National Middle School Science Bowl in Colorado, all in search, for creative ideas when it comes to researching alternative fuels.

"Some people might ask, 'why don't you just use an electric car?', but electric cars right now takes six to seven hours to charge them up and they don't go as nearly as far, and that's why we looked into hydrogen," said Kevin Brown, another team member. "It is pumped like gas."

"Now, that I see that there are things like this, I know that we are actually heading in the right direction and that makes me feel really good," said Andrew Hoth, another team member.

The students worked with mentors on the car since April, and they put in hours of experimenting after their regular studies.

"Hydrogen may be it or may not be it, until we do the research and we get kids like this really interested in it we won't know what the answers are these are the kids that are gonna solve the problems for us in the future," said Tony Baca, one of the team mentors.

Perhaps the solution to these high gas prices, is in fueling the imagination of our youth.