The University of Maryland--College Park initiated the First-Year Innovation & Research Experience (FIRE) in 2014 to provide authentic faculty-led research experiences, mentorship, and accelerated opportunity for first-year students from a wide range of academic backgrounds. To annually provide more than 600 new FIRE students with an authentic research experience that will prepare them to join any FIRE research group in their second semester, the program has iteratively developed, refined, and assessed a novel alternative to more traditional research methods courses. The course learning outcomes empower students to find, read, and understand primary literature; perform literature reviews; define and execute a novel research project with a strong focus on data analytics and visualization; and collaborate within the framework of a role-based team to deliver meaningful results.