The exquisite control of internal and external degrees of freedom possible for laser-cooled atoms makes them ideal test particles for the study of a wide variety of physical effects. One of the most promising frontiers of research in atomic clocks and sensors is quantum metrology, the engineering of quantum states to improve sensor performance (i.e. using quantum mechanics to beat classical statistics). An experimental system particularly well-suited to the investigation of quantum metrology protocols is formed by an ensemble of laser-cooled atoms coupled to a high-finesse optical resonator cavity, taking advantage of the resonator’s enhancement of the atoms’ interactions with resonant intracavity light. I will describe our experiments in using cavity-mediated measurements to prepare many-atom correlated states, as well as more recent studies of exploiting cavity dynamics to create novel effective interactions between atoms.