The George Lucas Educational Foundation began in 1991 with an ambitious mission: to demonstrate how innovative learning environments in classrooms, supported by powerful new technologies, could revolutionize learning. As an organization founded by George Lucas, its members believed that the same benefits of technology that were transforming business, health care, manufacturing, entertainment, and other sectors could be applied in education. This belief led to their support for research published in the book, "Powerful Learning: What We Know About Teaching for Understanding" (Jossey-Bass, 2008), from which this paper is excerpted. The research highlighting the benefits of authentic learning, together with a growing interest in providing students with more engaging, thought-provoking learning opportunities, has prompted teachers at all grade levels to experiment with incorporating inquiry-based learning into their curriculum. But interest alone does not make for effective implementation of new models. Indeed, "learning by doing" has a somewhat checkered track record, in part because teachers often lack the information, support, and tools necessary to fully integrate and support this alternative approach to teaching and learning. This excerpt seeks to expand the authors' knowledge of the benefits of inquiry-based learning, as well as to deepen their understanding of the components of an effective inquiry-based lesson or unit. This excerpt explores three approaches to inquiry-based learning: project-based learning, problem-based learning, and learning by design, highlighting key research and unpacking important elements of each approach.