Thursday, September 18, 2025 9/18/2025

EMPOWER: Enacting Materials to Promote OWnership, Engagement and Relevance

Award Number: R25GM142056
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GENERAL MEDICAL SCIENCES
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/20/2022
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 08/31/2027

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

EMPOWER: Enacting Materials to Promote OWnership, Engagement and Relevance - EMPOWER: Enacting Materials to Promote OWnership, Engagement and Relevance EMPOWER (Enacting Materials to Promote OWnership, Engagement and Relevance) is an ambitious program that empowers students to enact change in their local community. The introduction of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) across the United States has spurred numerous efforts to design and disseminate NGSS-aligned curriculum materials. NGSS-aligned curriculum materials aim to shift science instruction away from rote memorization and toward the active co-construction of ideas by teachers and students. However, these curriculum materials often do not address the persistent, and problematic relationships between race, class, and health and environmental factors that minoritized students of color face in their communities. The goal of the EMPOWER program is to prepare teachers to adapt and enact curriculum materials to address and respond to issues of sociopolitical relevance, so that students will be engaged, interested, and empowered to enact change in their local community. In the EMPOWER program, we will work with a cohort of teachers (~40) in 3 core partner school districts who have committed to using NGSS-aligned units as part of their middle school science curriculum. Our theory of action is that supporting teachers’ understanding of their students, their local teaching contexts, and the curriculum materials will result in shifts in 1) teachers’ views of effective science teaching, 2) teachers’ capacity to adapt curriculum materials to address local issues, and 3) students’ sense of ownership and engagement in science learning. These shifts are mediated by 2 years of professional learning (PL) activities across two contexts: participation in 1) week-long summer workshops, and 2) ongoing cycles of enactment and reflection during the academic year. In the summer workshops, teachers will investigate the environmental and health issues in students’ local community and use this knowledge to adapt the curriculum to directly connect science learning to these issues. During the academic year, teachers will engage in multiple cycles of enactment and reflection on the adapted lesson with researchers and their district colleagues. Across these two contexts, artifacts, surveys and video recordings will be used to study shifts in teacher’s beliefs and adaptive expertise with curriculum materials, as well as students’ participation in science learning. In Year 3, we will work with a subset of teachers in each cohort (~20) to co-develop an open source video case library of curricular adaptations that promote students’ ownership, engagement, and participation. The research activities of the EMPOWER program will result in the development of an open source video case library that documents how curriculum enactments empower students to address human and environmental health issues in their community.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $241,073 )
2025	2025	THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO	3100 MARINE ST	BOULDER	CO	80309	BOULDER	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	003	5	7/21/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$241,073
2025	2024	THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO	3100 MARINE ST	BOULDER	CO	80309	BOULDER	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	002	4	7/17/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2025	2024	THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO	3100 MARINE ST	BOULDER	CO	80309	BOULDER	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	001	4	7/11/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2025	2024	THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO	3100 MARINE ST	BOULDER	CO	80309	BOULDER	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	000	4	6/3/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $241,073

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $242,167 )
2024	2024	THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO	3100 MARINE ST	BOULDER	CO	80309	BOULDER	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	000	4	9/9/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$242,167
														Subtotal = $242,167

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $243,709 )
2023	2023	THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO	3100 MARINE ST	BOULDER	CO	80309	BOULDER	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	002	3	9/6/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$247,558
2023	2022	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, THE	3100 MARINE ST STE 481 572 UCB	BOULDER	CO	80309	BOULDER	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	001	2	3/30/2023	CHANGE OF GRANTEE / TRAINING INSTITUTION / AWARDING INSTITUTION	$238,388
2023	2022	UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS	809 S MARSHFIELD RM 520	CHICAGO	IL	60612	COOK	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	000	1	3/23/2023	NEW	-$242,237
														Subtotal = $243,709

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $242,238 )
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS	809 S MARSHFIELD RM 520	CHICAGO	IL	60612	COOK	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	000	1	9/20/2022	NEW	$242,238
														Subtotal = $242,238

Grand Total All Awards = $969,187

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

EMPOWER: Enacting Materials to Promote OWnership, Engagement and Relevance

Award Number: R25GM142056

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GENERAL MEDICAL SCIENCES

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/20/2022

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 08/31/2027

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer