The term "open educational resources" (OERs) was first coined by UNESCO in 2005 and refers to "teaching, learning or research materials that are in the public domain or released with an intellectual property license that allows for free use, adaptation, and/or distribution." OERs offer educators what might be termed "value neutral" online resources which the end users can embed in customized lessons for their students--lessons that depend solely on the innovation of the teacher, the needs of the students, and the local or state standards required. However, while OERs are easily accessible and freely available on the web, the challenges to realizing their potential in K-16 education include a lack of awareness of the existence and potential impact of OERs, the glut of poor resources on the Internet, and a lack of experience of K-12 teachers and university instructors in experimenting with embedding them in existing lessons. While working on a two and a half year project with a select group of middle and high school math and science teachers from across the nation, the authors learned some valuable lessons about introducing the uninitiated to OERs. The goal of their project was to assist these teachers in revamping an existing lesson by incorporating useful OERs that would challenge their students to explore content in exciting ways. Some things to keep in mind when investigating OERs are discussed. (Contains 8 footnotes.)