With the help of technology, eight students sent a multilingual eco-minded message through cyberspace to reach as many people as possible around the world. Their campaign was recently rewarded with a co-grand prize award in the Lexus Environmental Challenge, a national competition that asked students to come up with ideas that will make a positive impact on the environment.

The students' project focused on the benefits of renewable energy such as wind turbines, solar panels, fuel cells and hydropower.

"We learned in class that fossil fuels were running out," says senior Genevieve Cagaoan. "It's not going to last forever, and it's also harmful to the environment. Global warming is one of the most important issues of today, so we wanted to focus on clean energy."

"The Dream Team," as the students named themselves, consists of seniors Cagaoan, Sheville Lee, Robbin Manzano, Herald Nones and Princes Rosit; juniors Robert John Delim and Carnina Figuracion; and sophomore Minhtrang Nguyen.

The students went on field trips to research their subject, and then made videos extolling the need to switch to clean, alternative energy.

The videos — which repeats the same message in English, Arabic, Cantonese, French, Hawaiian, Ilocano, Japanese, Korean, Samoan, Tagalog and Vietnamese — were posted on YouTube and other media Web sites.

"They wanted to make an impact not just locally but globally, and not everyone out there understands English," says Bebi Davis, the Farrington High science teacher who served as project advisor.

Parents, teachers and classmates helped the Dream Team members translate their message into the different languages. The students received further assistance when such groups as the Farrington Alumni and Community Foundation, Women in Technology and Isis Hawaii posted on their Web sites links to Dream Team projects.

The Dream Team has also visited Kapalama Elementary, Highlands Intermediate and Kalakaua Middle schools to get the word out to younger students.

"This problem isn't solved," Davis says. "We have to stimulate interest in kids, awaken those little scientists' minds."

Dream Team members, the school and Davis will share in the $75,000 grand prize in grant money from Lexus. Students from Academy I Middle School in Jersey City, N.J., were the other grand-prize winners, and 14 other teams from schools around the country also won grant money.

To watch one of the Dream Team videos, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4fPt32OgLo.