Research opportunities for a sophomore/rising sophomore

As the title suggests, I am currently a rising sophomore looking for some way to further immerse myself into STEM by engaging in some sorts of research.
First of all, I have already taken an Introduction to Science Research course at my school and I will be taking a Biotechnology research course as a sophomore; I wanted to know if colleges, summer programs, etc., see these classes as research experience.
More importantly, I was wondering how I could possibly gain more research experience outside of school. Should I email certain researchers and professors who live around me and ask them if I can contribute to their research? Or is there some other, better way to achieve my goal?
Thank you. Any help is appreciated
P.S. - I don’t want this to rub off the wrong way: I am not trying to get research experience to impress college admission officers or something. I want to do this because I want to expand my knowledge of the sciences.

I’ve heard that simply emailing nearby researchers and such to see if they would let me participate in their projects and such is a good place to start, but I was just hoping for some further advice.