Research-based courses are intended to engage students in real research projects that ask lab or field-based research questions and whose outcome is not known in advance by the teacher or the student. These projects may be very ambitious, professional-level projects leading to the acquisition of potentially publishable data, or they may be more modest projects. The ideas for the projects may come from the faculty member or from the students.

A major attraction of teaching research-based courses is that they are fun! You as a faculty member have the chance to share your passion for research with students. The students find projects fun. They are often motivated to work incredibly hard for their own data, while gaining tremendous insight into the scientific process.

The purpose of this site is to provide resources for the design of research-based courses. You will find here:
• A guide to the planning process, including guideline questions and points to ponder that will help you get off to a smoother start.
• "jump-starting the course" --ideas for getting the course off to a vigorous beginning.
• Skill-building activities that show how students can be brought up to speed so that they are ready to design and carry out their projects.
• Assessment techniques for finding out how students are doing and how the course is going.
• Resources such as peer evaluation guides, peer-editing, and "how to read a scientific paper" and models (syllabi and descriptions) of successful research-based courses at different institutions, as well as national resources.