President Obama lavished praise on student science projects Monday and pledged $240 million toward science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) during the White House Science Fair today.

Obama said the new commitment swill bring support for such programs to $1 billion, and would include $150 million to encourage early-career scientists to stay in their field, as well as a $90 million campaign to push STEM opportunities to the underrepresented, such as minorities and girls, according to an Associated Press report.

Obama first started the “Educate to Innovate” initiative in 2009 to encourage people to study in STEM fields, and he has gotten more than 100 colleges and universities to commit to training 20,000 engineers, as well as a group of corporate executives to promise ot expand STEM education programs to 1.5 million more students, according to the report.

A total 35 student teams were to exhibit their projects during the White House Science Fair, with Obama himself a self-proclaimed science geek who likes to ponder such things when he isn’t busy with other world affairs.

The president perused submissions that included an effort to turn algae into a fuel source, a new spinal treatment, a cyber technology that would block hackers, according to a USA Today report.

Obama took special note of a project by some girls in kindergarten and the first grade who developed a machine built out of Legos that can turn pages to help handicapped people who want to be able to read. They said they came up with it during a brainstorming session, and asked Obama if he ever had such sessions, to which he replied that he had, but hadn’t been able to “come up with something as cool as this,” according to the report.

Obama said the science fair was one of the most fun events for the year for him, while also noting that it was important as society needs to encourage students to get into a STEM education. He told the kids that he was “proud of you” and “we’ve got to support you.”