PULLMAN — Kingston High School won Best Project from a Newly Participating School in the sixth annual Imagine Tomorrow competition, May 25-26 at Washington State University.

More than 500 students in grades 9-12 from three states showcased their ideas for energy sustainability. More than $100,000 in cash prizes were awarded. Imagine Tomorrow (https://imagine.wsu.edu) is sponsored by The Boeing Company, Bank of America, BP, Weyerhaeuser, the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance, and USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

The students’ projects followed the theme, “Redesign, Reform, Refuel.” Teams presented their proposals to judges hailing from the top ranks of academia and industry.

Organizers said the first-place winners in each of four challenge categories — behavior, biofuels, design and technology — raised the bar for presenting creative, thoroughly researched ideas to solve energy problems.

“This year we saw a number of projects that demonstrated extraordinary creativity,” said M. Grant Norton, Imagine Tomorrow co-chairman and dean of WSU’s Honors College.

“Some of the students had ideas so innovative and so well-researched that they could even begin steps toward commercialization.”

The best project from a newly participating school from each congressional district was awarded $100 for each student and $500 for their school. Kingston High School won for its exploration of “Tidal Production of Electricity.”

First-place winners in each challenge category took home $1,000 for each student competitor and $5,000 for their school.

Sentinel High School in Missoula, Mont. won the behavior challenge by designing a video game that influenced players to recycle in real life.

Henry M. Jackson High School in Mill Creek won the biofuels challenge. The team discovered that combining biodegradable plastic with cow manure in an anaerobic digester yields significantly more biogas than when manure is digested alone.

STEM School in Redmond won the design challenge with an affordable way to retrofit existing homes with renewable energy technologies.

Union High School in Camas won the technology challenge. Its team developed an easy, affordable way to control and monitor home energy usage.