Since the school year of 2011/12 there is the possibility to offer courses in the “Oberstufe” in North Rhine‐Westphalia in which students conduct a large‐scale project. These courses are bound to either one or two subjects and they aim at promoting students’ competences in working scientifically, independently and cooperatively. Empirical research about this course format is still lacking. Therefore this paper investigates potentials and limits of Geography based project courses and draws recommendations from them. For doing so, teachers are asked about their experiences with this new course by means of guided interviews. A structured content analysis shows that project courses offer the possibility to deal with current topics and to support students’ independence. On the other hand, the courses have a high workload and are sometimes perceived as too demanding. Most of the survey’s results can also be transferred to project courses that are based on other subjects.