In some instances, the emphasis has been in science and the environment. These grants include:

An institution in Deland, Florida, was provided a $610,000 National Science Foundation grant. The grant money, provided as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, is to help pay for a four month upgrade of science facilities on campus, according to an announcement from that college. The four-month effort involving new furnishings, chemical fume hoods and more in chemistry, biology and psychology-neuroscience labs, was expected to begin in October, the announcement noted.

A $1.27 million grant from the US Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration was provided to a Portland institution. The grant money is to help enhance equipment, such as chemical fume hoods, in one of their science buildings. In replacing chemical fume hoods that are 40 years old, the new equipment is to provide as much as a 30 percent energy savings, according to a November announcement from the university. The upgrades are part of a $46.5 million retrofit of the science building, with construction expected to be complete by spring 2011.

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a university received a $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health's Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The grant money, provided to the Center for Bioterrorism and All-Hazards Preparedness at the college's school of osteopathic medicine, is intended to train workers on oil rigs for disaster preparedness and responding to spills and other hazardous materials events, according to an announcement from the institution. The training is to focus on health and safety, the announcement noted.

Pennsylvania, in the city of Philadelphia, was provided a $1 million US Department of Energy grant. The grant money, provided as part of the Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Program, is intended to help the institution pay for research and educational efforts related to environmental stewardship, according to an announcement from that college. Among the projects to benefit are research efforts involving the use of Great Plains grasses in biofuel and green roof systems as a means of saving energy, the announcement noted.

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant in the amount of $.45 million was given to an Athens, Georgia, university. The grant money, awarded to Associate Professor Doug Peterson, is to be shared with US Geological Survey, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries researchers and is to be provided over the course of three years. Peterson is a fisheries research biologist. He and the others are to tag and monitor federally protected Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon to determine their populations and threats between Georgia and the Carolinas.

Scott Harding and Chung-Jui Tsai, researchers and faculty members at a Georgia institution were provided a $1.34 million US Department of Energy biofuels grant to modify the genes of trees in an attempt to make them grow faster for use as biofuel. As well, marine sciences researchers Samantha Joye and Patricia Medeiros were provided nearly $300,000 in grants, including rapid response money from the National Science Foundation. The grant money is intended to help the researchers determine the effects that the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico had on the environment and, according to an announcement, would focus on carbon in the water.

Researchers have since been unveiling their findings with regard to effects of the Gulf oil spill, which brought even more attention to a field within the sciences that's expected to experience growth. With help from grants, colleges and universities are working to enhance the facilities that science students need to carry out their hands-on activities. Grants also are helping to pay for hands-on "field" research as it relates to science and the environment.

Students are receiving money for college in increasing numbers as STEM fields are showing such promise for candidates who enter those programs. Online degrees are growing as students incorporate work and study into their lives.