Research service-learning (RSL) is an emerging pedagogy in which students engage in research within a service-learning context. This approach has great potential to promote science literacy because it teaches students how to use scientific knowledge and scientific ways of thinking in the service of society and helps them to better appreciate the strengths and limitations of the scientific method. The authors used RSL to promote science literacy in an introductory course for nonmajors, Conservation Biology of the Eno River. In this paper, they describe RSL, explain how they used it to design this course, and describe some lessons learned. They also describe the benefits of RSL for students, faculty, the community, and universities. Their hope is to provide science educators with another useful strategy for promoting science literacy.