In this article, the authors describe a large-scale research collaboration, the Partnership for Research and Education in Plants (PREP), which has capitalized on publicly available databases that contain massive amounts of biological information; stock centers that house and distribute inexpensive organisms with different genotypes; and the internet, which serves as a conduit for dialogue and knowledge sharing. Through PREP, entire classes of students, with mentorship from teachers and scientists, are currently designing and conducting their own investigations while adding to the body of knowledge about genes and their functions. (Contains 2 figures.)