A desire to give students training in traditional ecology techniques often produces a large set of “classical” ecology labs. Although exposure to a multitude of techniques may produce students who are proficient in those techniques, it may have the unfortunate byproduct of generating students who are uninspired and uncreative researchers. A decade of summer research experience with undergraduate students has suggested that a fundamental change in ecology lab can enhance student learning in ecology classes.

Results/Conclusions

Committing to a semester-long, student-developed research project inspires students to engage fully in the science of ecology. Moreover, this approach trains students in six essential processes of good scientific research: (1) creating a valuable question, (2) exploring primary literature associated with the question, (3) designing an experiment that addresses the question, (4) collecting data (while surmounting challenges), (5) analyzing data appropriately, and (6) presenting their findings to a scientific community. Although more chaotic, commitment to a semester-long research project rewards students with meaningful research experience and provides students with the basis for critical thinking/evaluation in ecology. This presentation explores summer research strategies that can be incorporated into a semester-long laboratory to increase the success rate of student projects.