I really enjoyed reading about the Citizen Science project because I fully support sparking a public interest in the sciences. What was interesting to me was that the article mentioned most volunteers were interested in science casually- whether they enjoyed hiking or bird watching or studying plants. It seemed almost silly that the Citizen Science project attracted those who were already interested in science, rather than the public as a whole. Whether the project merely happened to create circumstances that attracted those already knowledgeable in the fields or it was intentionally made to attract those who already had a casual background in the topics, it would be nice to see what can be done to appeal to the general public. Can science ever be truly universal? That’s something that I would like to read more about and discuss. Because science can be so multifaceted, perhaps there could be more done to include the general public. Informal science institutions do a great job of drawing the general public into the sciences and exposing them briefly, but I’d like to see more people from all walks of life participate in Citizen Science projects.

Another aspect of the article I found so interesting was the data collection. Data collection seems to be something that is extremely important in science and for scientists to rely on regular people for their information is so interesting. Because the data scientists use needs to be accurate for scientists to make reliable findings, I feel as though the Citizen Science projects do a good job of checking up on the volunteers and ensure reliability in the data they collect. While I know that utilizing volunteers can be cost effective for projects, I still think that it’s so amazing for people from all walks of life to be able to collect accurate and usable data. It really takes away from the exclusive feeling of the sciences and promotes science for all.