I liked that Chapter 2 acknowledges the social and cultural forces that influence science and scientists. Scientists are drawn to what they study by personal interests as well as the social and cultural conditions of their time and view their discoveries and observations through those lenses. As the chapter states, “science reflects the cultural values of those who engage in it” (Fenichel and Schweingruber; National Research Council, 20).

I also enjoyed the idea of inviting laypeople with strong interests in certain areas of study, such as the study of birds, to partner with trained scientists and experts in the field to further the knowledge available. The experience of Project FeederWatch was beneficial for both “citizen scientists” and trained scientists; citizen scientists had the opportunity to  be challenged and learn more about and be actual participants in furthering research on birds and bird behavior, and trained scientists learned that some of their hypotheses were inaccurate and the data gathered by citizen scientists were so significant that they were published in peer-reviewed journals.

The “strands of science” learning described the whole process of informal science learning, which I thought was very thorough and marked the steps of informal learning from the very beginning with sparking an interest to encouraging the informal scholar to think scientifically with scientific reasoning and to use tools and vocabulary that trained scientists and experts use and to develop a scientific identity. This process definitely engages scientific interest and if followed through, can make an informal scholar, a citizen scientist, feel like an important and included part of a field more traditionally represented by formally trained individuals.