Teaching just the facts about genetics, bacteria, viruses, and fungi leave out the practical application of their impact on humans and miss an important teaching opportunity. While a research paper could fill this knowledge gap, it would result in detailed knowledge of just one disease. By using a science notebook as the vehicle for shorter targeted research, students are able to investigate eight different diseases during a nine week grading period. This session will describe the disease notebook assignment, demonstrate how to integrate their new- found knowledge into classroom discussion, show examples of student work, share results of student feedback at the end of the term, and evaluate the impact of the project on their class grade.