SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (AP) — The University of Rhode Island has received more than half a million dollars in grants that will help equip several labs and a diving research facility.

The university announced Thursday it got five grants from The Champlin Foundations totaling $530,000.

The largest grant of $120,000 will be used to buy dive equipment, computers, underwater photographic equipment and other research equipment for the diving facility.

Other grants will be used to equip a biochemistry lab, a motion analysis lab and a behavior change intervention lab, and to create a teaching and design lab for ocean engineering and oceanography students at the Narragansett Bay campus.

URI's provost and vice president for academic affairs says the projects will allow the school to expand hands-on learning opportunities for students.