With the Britton Middle School gymnasium filled to near capacity for its fourth annual science fairwhich displayed projects from about 320 eighth-grade studentsclassmates Eliza Martin and Xuan Nguyen wore white T-shirts with words and drawings that helped detail their experiment titled, Poo-Ti-Fuel.

Over the course of the first semester, the two 13-year-olds tested different organic matter to identify which produced the best biofuel. One of those substances chosen by the duoand colorfully drawn on the front of their shirtswas cow manure.

We put the variables in bottles filled with water and strapped a balloon on the top, explained Nguyen, minutes after she and Martin received first-place blue ribbons awarded to winners in seven different categories Tuesday night. We recorded the data over one week and measured the energy created by the circumference of the balloon.

Their hypothesis was correct: the bananas and cow manure were tied for producing the most biofuel ahead of mixed vegetables.

It was really an honor to win, Martin said. We put a lot of work into our project.

Another first-place finisher, 13-year-old Gabe Milos, was equally as excited with the results from his experiment measuring the difference in distance of a ball struck by a cork-filled baseball bat and a standard one.

Its lighter so you can swing the bat faster, said Milos, a Morgan Hill Pony Baseball League player who was inspired for his project after watching an old Chicago Cubs game in which slugger Sammy Sosa was caught using a corked bat. I wasnt expecting to win. It was cool, though.

Twins Satyen and Shrayen Patel, blue ribbon winners in the Chemistry category, thought it would be cool to examine, Whats in Your Drink?, for their science project. They discovered that there is more sugar content in organic orange and apple juices than in Coca-Cola and Diet Coke. However, the sugar in the juice was good sugar, Satyen Patel explained.

The top four finishers in each category, including Biology, Botany, Behavioral, Engineering/Electricity, Physics and Chemistry, received ribbons and their entry tickets to the Jan. 15 citywide science fair that puts Brittons students up against fellow eighth-graders from Martin Murphy Middle School and Oakwood School.

Whats really nice is they have been working on their projects since September and this has really been a culmination of the entire semester, said Britton science teacher Jim Levin. We really tied together all of the school. This is a multi-disciplinary project. It just happens to be under science.

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Students show off projects at Britton science fair