Abstract
This paper will present the results of a study of student reflections from several project-based learning (PBL) courses at Creighton, including an upper-division quantum mechanics course and a freshman-level integrated calculus and physics course. Student reflections give interesting insights into areas of the course, such as student motivation, changes in students' epistemologies, teaming issues, and the effectiveness of the project-based pedagogy. We will present several lessons learned from having students write frequent reflective essays, demonstrate the power of using student reflection as a tool for PER research on attitudes and epistemologies, and discuss strategies for increasing the usefulness of embedded reflection within the course.