The Howard Hughes Medical Institute says it will award $79 million to universities so that teachers and researchers can develop new ideas and initiatives to strengthen science education. The grants will be funded through HHMI's Precollege and Undergraduate Science Education Program and its Professors Program. Fifty research universities across the country will receive $70 million, with grants ranging from $800,000 to $2 million to develop creative curricula, give students more time in the lab and improve science teaching, HHMI says. The other $9 million will be split among 13 HHMI professors to work on solving the problems of science education and to teach large, introductory science classes.