Students can, and should, do open-ended projects in their school science education. This article draws together findings from a series of research investigations into students' research projects in schools. It finds that they are effective in developing core skills in students, especially problem-solving, communication and interpersonal skills; that they improve the attitudes of students towards science and technology and the likelihood that they will enter careers in these areas; and that they allow students to experience and develop one important type of authentic science in schools. It suggests that we now have a rationale for the inclusion of student research projects into the science curriculum and evidence that school science will be enriched and revived by the introduction of such authentic science.