A broad continuum exists to describe the structure of inquiry lessons (Hanegan, Friden, & Nelson, 2009). Most teachers have heard inquiry described from a range of simple questioning to completely student-designed scientific studies (Chinn & Malhotra, 2002). Biotechnology education often uses a variety of inquiries from cookbook laboratory investigations to authentic inquiries. We examined how authentic inquiry, in the form of student-designed original scientific research projects, impacted learning. In this paper we also describe how students expressed that authentic inquiry in biotechnology education enhanced their understanding. (This paper is a summary of Hanegan & Bigler, 2009)