I felt like the article “Citizen Science: Can Volunteers do Real Research?” by Jeffrey P. Cohn was demeaning towards citizen scientists. Although the main idea of the article was that citizen scientists are extremely useful in contributing to scientific research by observing and collecting data, it seemed as though the author believed that citizen scientists weren’t as important as “real scientists.” In fact, Cohn states, “Citizen scientists help monitor wild animals and plants or other environmental markers, but they are not paid for their assistance, nor are they necessarily even scientists. Most are amateurs who volunteer to assist ecological research because they love the outdoors or are concerned about environmental trends and problems and want to do something about them.” Cohn’s point of view is different than what was said about citizen scientists that participated in Project FeederWatch in “Surrounded by Science”. Project FeederWatch focused on the aspect that absolutely anyone is able to be a “citizen scientist” and can make valuable scientific contributions; according to “Surrounded by Science,” “the thinking behind the project [Project FeederWatch] was that giving “regular” people the chance to engage directly with phenomena and learn how to conduct investigations would help them become comfortable with the tools and practices of science.” On the other hand, I feel like Cohn isn’t genuinely praising citizen scientists because he states that they aren’t real scientists, they’re “amateurs.” Also, Cohn specifically made the distinction between “scientists” and “citizen scientists,” often using the word “volunteers” when referring to the latter.

Although Cohn didn’t consider citizen scientists “real scientists,” he still acknowledged that citizen scientists have helped advance scientific knowledge simply by going out, collecting data, and observing something they were interested in and were not paid to do. Even though citizen scientists aren’t necessarily “professionals” in the fields that they study, they are still ultimately able to contribute to science.