Two new Science Methods courses were developed that focus on inquiry-based learning with Great Salt Lake as a model system. Our goals for our students were: 1) to experience science as a process, 2) to design curricula incorporating this inquiry approach. In addition, this project has highlighted the educational value of studying a unique regional ecosystem. Pre-service teachers participated in research projects and developed teaching units inspired by these projects. Ultimately we guided the transition from "doing science" to "teaching science," and the result was teaching units rich in inquiry. These teaching units were evaluated based on the new American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2061 curricula assessment clusters. In addition, a formative evaluation was done, which focused on student attitude changes as a result of participation in our course. We have accumulated preliminary data from both evaluations for the first year of our project.