FAIRBANKS -- Students at a Fairbanks high school last year produced a whopping 500 pound of potatoes from the school's garden plot.

This year, they want to do even better.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner says students in biology and earth sciences classes at West Valley High School are seeing what type of soil grows better potatoes: rototilled or broad fork-tilled.

The fall's science classes will examine the data, and until then, summer school students are taking care of the garden's weeding and upkeep.

Science teacher Kate Doran says the potato project began about six years ago.