You need a shot of confidence when you think about future generations and the shape of the country then?

Look no further than Rio Rancho High School to find some kids who’ll restore your faith in youth — and two of them who someday might have found a way to make fuel prices reasonable again.

The Observer had the opportunity to chat last Thursday with a trio of high-achieving, Atlanta-bound stu-dents, who not only have award-winning research projects ready to compete in Georgia against students from all over the world, but the personality and intelligence to restore faith in this generation. Take sophomore Ford Carty, as one shining example. He and his brother, Mid-High ninth-grader Vaughn Carty, put together “Saline Tolerance of Lipid Producing Diatoms: New Energy & Economics for the Neo-Permian Basin?”

Yup, that’s a mouthful.

What does it all mean, in terms a non-scientist can understand?

“We compared different types of algae in saltwater to see if it can survive,” Carty said. “The Permian Basin of New Mexico in Hobbs is an underused underground resource of saline water.

“Look at algae — and using oils could be used to produce fuels, which perhaps could be cost-competitive; underground fossil fuels,” he continued. “Also with ethanol, (we could) reduce crop use on marginal land. It definitely can be done. We’re on track to lose all our underground fossil fuel resources n use them all up in the next 100 years.”

Basically, Carty means producing algae to in turn produce fuel.

It could be said he’s come a long way since his juggling project, charting the parabolas of the balls to determine how wide the hands should be placed to catch and toss them.

The Corrales youngster with a wealth of home schooling hopes to attend Stanford in a few years. The Cartys are the sons of Joel and Tris Carty; his mother teaches fifth-graders at Seven Bar Elementary in Northwest Albuquerque.

Senior Megan Johnson is enthralled with teaching and came up with “How We Think, Who We Are: How We Learn?”

“People don’t really fit into molds,” she said. “There are different characteristics to uncover more about people, a limited amount we can do to determine learning styles.

“It’s very, very valuable for teachers to understand how their students learn.”

She said the data she obtained could be translated into teaching.

“This has revealed to me how much I love learning,” she said.

Johnson, who is headed to Rice University in Houston next fall, said her mother is a former teacher. She is the daughter of Ben and Kathy Johnson.

Junior Nicolette Quesada came up with a practical way for people to place their wheelchairs into car trunks.

Her project is “Roll Up for Easy Access: A Design of Evolution.

Quesada said she wanted to engineer an alternative wheelchair lift, something “easy and cheap,” she noted.

She helps a co-worker at Presbyterian Hospital, driving him and his wheelchair there when they share a shift. “I told him I was going to surprise him,” she said.

She did, with the help of a Honeywell engineer, whom she used as a consultant.

“It’s cheaper than the lifts out there,” Quesada said.

Now, his wheelchair is easily lifted into the trunk, which can be retrofitted for her device, which she is seeking a patent.

“I’m doing research to see if there’s anything (similar) out there,” she said. “Ours is similar to a ramp.”

The device will be useful for people temporarily “handicapped,” such as those with broken legs or coming off surgery.

Quesada envisions making such devices available at rental stores, even at rental car lots.

Somehow, she managed to run on the Rams cross country team in the fall, although her project and a slew of AP classes took up too much time for her to compete for the track and field team this spring.

The daughter of Jose and Leta Quesada, she hopes to attend either Cornell or Colorado University after graduation.

Rio Rancho High School’s other Atlanta-bound student, Rachel Lopez, chose “Ghost Nets: Biodegradable or Not? (Phase II)” could be must-reading for those who saw phase one. (She wasn’t available when The Observer visited the gym last week.)

The success of these RRHS students doesn’t surprise SciMatics Academy head Dan Barbour.

“This does not happen by chance,” Barbour said. “We have created a culture behind the scenes that values and supports research.”

The best may be yet to come, Barbour explained, as six Rio Rancho elementary schools held EXPOs, as did all three middle schools, where a research project is required of all students; an eighth-grade EXPO at the Mid-High, plus the two annual EXPOs at the high school.

“Rio Rancho dominated the 2008 Central New Mexico Science & Engineering Research Challenge at the University of New Mexico and the New Mexico State Science Fair in Socorro,” he said. “Our students claimed numerous grand awards and by my estimate, over $15,000 in cash and scholarships. This process truly allows our students to excel.

This is the seventh year in a row in which RRHS students have qualified for the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair. Last year’s ISEF was held in Albuquerque, “engineered” by former RRHS SciMatics Academy head Russ Fisher-Ives.