An idea hatched by eighth graders at Bozeman's Sacajawea Middle School to clean up the atmosphere by cleaning up after cows has earned them some recognition.

The students were recently named state finalists in a national environmental change competition put on by the Siemens Corporation.

More than 2,000 students participated in the inaugural year of the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge, which asked teams of two to three students in sixth through eighth grade, under the mentorship of a teacher or adult supervisor, to identify an environmental issue in their community, research the issue using scientific investigation, and create a replicable green solution using Web-based curriculum tools powered by Discovery Education, according to the Siemens Foundation Web site.

For their project, a trio of Sacajawea students turned to the fields in their own backyards.

"Well, the kids called me up and expressed an interest in finding out more about how methane might generated on the farm and how it might be useful as a source of green energy," said Faith Dairy Farm owner Dave Bos.

Students Seth Reichert, Marina Dimatrov and Sophie Zhu found out quite a bit. Their winning project for the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge advises farms to build methane digesters to not only help reduce the greenhouse gas, but generate heat or electricity

Reichert says the originality of the idea helped them win.

"I think it's something that not many people hear about and it's kind of obscure," he said.

The digesters basically wash cow excrement into a big vat. As the waste decomposes and releases methane, the device captures the gas and puts it through a generator.

Montana cows release a lot of methane, and when the team did the math...

"We found that if we captured all that methane, which wouldn't happen, but if we did, up to 21 percent of Montana's energy could come from the cows," Dimatrov said.

Since fewer cows would also mean less greenhouse gas, the kids suggest reducing the amount of meat we eat to reduce demand, even if only a little.

"So maybe just don't eat meat one day a week. That really can add up to a lot if it's hundreds of thousands of people." Zhu said.

Whatever the team suggests has to be economically viable to catch on, according to Bos. And for his dairy farm, a methane digesting system is not cost effective yet.

But he says it's getting more feasible all the time, and collecting cow pies just may be a common power and money generator before long.