DEERFIELD, Wis. -- Some high school students in Deerfield are making the grade with an extreme lesson in going green. They're learning and practicing chemistry making a clean burning fuel.

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On Monday, the class was testing the purity of ethanol they made themselves.

"Each one has a different amount, or ratio, of like water to ethanol," said student Katrina Reese.

The class hopes to convert the methanol to biodiesel to run a motor that will till a school garden to grow soybeans that they will again convert into biodiesel fuel.

"Fuel is like a huge issue right now," said student Moses Kutzki. "So we questioned what could we do with an alternative fuel? We just kind of worked on that, and it grew into a class."

"It was kind of exciting, but it was sort of just a spur-of-the-moment kind of decision," said chemistry teacher Mark Klawiter.

Klawiter is spearheading the project with the help from other science departments, the computer classes and the technical education classes.

"The kind of learning that this involves, there's not a textbook that will allow kids to see how it's supposed to be done," said Klawiter. "So from my vantage point as a science teacher, this is real science."

The initiatives being taught so far have earned Klawiter and his students nearly $13,000 in grant money. They recently spent around $10,000 of it on computers, a projector, software and other equipment to help keep the bioprogram going, WISC-TV reported.

The students said it's been a valuable learning experience about science, engineering and the environment.

"It taught me that there was cheaper ways of making more efficient fuel," said student Garth Kutzki. "And it's less harmful to our environment, too. I just thought that well, now I know how it's made, it doesn't seem all that complicated. Maybe since some high schoolers figured out how to do it, maybe some big company can implement it into the functions of their vehicles and stuff like that."

"These are great kids, and right on down the line, I've been amazed at the work they've been able to do and just the energy that they pour into it, the enthusiasm they've got," said Klawiter.

The students are using vegetable oil to extract and create biodiesel fuel.

Over the next few weeks they hope to plant soybeans in the garden for next year's students.