Research Quest Tools for Teachers

Since its launch online in 2016, teachers have grown to love Research Quest. The program improves students’ critical thinking, collaboration, and communication skills. Plus:

  • It's easy to use — for teachers AND students
  • It aligns with middle school standards for science and English Language Arts
  • Students love it for the engaging activities and authentic science
  • It's completely free and available online

Research Quest's phenomena-based learning experiences build students' understanding of disciplinary core ideas, cross-cutting concepts, and science practices. Each investigation engages students in asking questions and using models to analyze and interpret data they'll use to construct explanations for our phenomenon-based questions.

As a teacher, you have several great options — each aligned with state educational standards:

  • The Traditional Approach
  • Livestream Sessions (Great for kids learning at home) 
  • On-Demand Classes  (Great for kids learning at home)

New Users

If you're new to Research Quest and looking to provide content to students working from home, consider directing your students to any of our on-demand classes.

If you'd like to give your students a deeper dive, you can also set up a teacher account to access additional resources — we call this the Traditional Approach. You can then lead your students through Research Quest investigations in your class, or have them do it on their own at home, using the materials and instructions you provide them.

Current Users

If you're a current user of Research Quest, you can continue to use our resources as you always have. You're also welcome to take advantage of our on-demand classes.


The Traditional Approach

Research Quest was designed to be used by teachers in their physical classrooms. It has everything they need to lead a class — instructional guides, links to educational standards, expert videos custom-made for students — and it's all available online. Students access the Research Quest investigations by logging in through the student portal - they don't need to create their own accounts.

Here's how to use the Research Quest investigations yourself and provide students with directions for how, when, and what you want them to do.

  1. Create a Teacher Account at www.researchquest.org.
  2. Log into your new account www.researchquest.org.
  3. Review the Instructional Guide for the investigation you want your students to do. These are found on the Teacher Support page.
  4. Send your students to www.researchquest.org/student. And give them the Student Access Code associated with your account. You can find it under My Account>Student Access Code.
  5. Direct students to the investigation you want them to complete.
  6. Give students a printed or digital copy of the Research Assistant Notebook for that investigation. Links to these can be found on the Teacher Support page in your account.

On-Demand Classes (available 24/7)

Students can use the Research Quest investigations with recorded support from NHMU educators. As students work on the investigations, our educators are there every step of the way to provide essential modeling, guidance, and answers to common questions students may have. 

Review the schedule of On-Demand Classes, including recorded Q&A sessions with our scientists, and let your students know which one to take. You can download the Research Assistant Notebook and send it to them yourself, or you can have them download and print it themselves using the provided link.

They can use either the RQARCHIVE Student Access Code or your unique Student Access Code, which is found under My Account once you're logged into your Research Quest account.