A grant to the University of Illinois will help rural students excel in chemistry. Teachers will be trained in the most up-to-date chemistry methods. Diana Dummitt from the College of Medicine says the grant will focus on small schools that need it most.

“We are giving preference to those schools that have one teacher teaching all the sciences…and..or teachers who are really trained in biology for example that are now teaching chemistry. So here we are targeting the most isolated rural schools in the state.”

The goal of the five-million-dollar grant is to help these students keep pace with their suburban peers in science. The 120 schools to receive the funding will be chosen later this year.