The project described herein was, from my perspective, a huge success. The students thoroughly enjoyed the course, spent more time working with the course material (and hence learned more?), and had something to show for their hard work at the end of the semester. They learned far more than an introduction to astrophysics. They experienced first hand how science progresses; They studied the observations, suggested theories, tested their hypotheses, modified their ideas, and converged on a working theory. The learned valuable skills in working and communicating with others.

I certainly did not discover all of these wonderful benefits of a class research project (although I did discover them for myself). Class projects are used throughout education - everywhere except, perhaps, in science departments at research universities. But that is, of course, exactly where we should have class research projects.