I am a student at Grand Canyon University and I am doing a project on world religions. My assignment is to find out from people who participate in Taoism what their core beliefs are. I need to know what the most important things are to taoists and why they are so important. If anyone would like to share their ideas I would be very greatful and very interested. Thank you for any time you are willing to put into this!

mr.minor has it right. Attempt to see for yourself and go from there. In other words you have to know before you can understand (knowing bubbling up into awareness from within).

One difficulty is that Taoism is perhaps best described by what are not its core beliefs, i.e., The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way; the name that can be named Is not the constant name.

A belief that can put 'the way' into words could not be a core 'taoist' belief and will always miss the mark. Thus, I'd say you have been given and impossible assignment. If you see life from a taoist point of view, then you could come up with something, albeit you'd still be beating around the bush - at least that's what I always end up doing.