Project Based fears

I have been pondering a possible project based unit for awhile. For a few months now, I have also thought of the idea of making one of my three preps totally projectbased. I am willing to switch my LA 101 to project based, and I want to,  but I have my fears. For one, I am not fully sure what a project based classroom looks like. Yes, I know the beginning and the end, but it's the middle and process part that scares me. My fear is that my class may turn in to a joke or 'easy' class where students do not work. I also have been thinking of just changing my team taught 101 class and keeping my regular ed 101 the same so I have data to compare and contrast from. My hope would be that the project based classroom has better data that I could share and convince others to use this teaching method/style.  I really want to make this switch, but I am afraid of not knowing what to do in the middle of the unit. I hope my team teacher has ideas and is willing.