One of the greatest barriers to understanding science as a culture is its perceived “exclusive participation”.  To some people, participating in the community of science requires a degree, or a great deal of specific, formal knowledge concerning the area of study. But the Citizen Science article showed that people not formally involved in the greater scientific community can still be called upon to contribute. The volunteers who participated in Citizen Science projects had at least a casual interest in science and some understanding of the scientific method. This shows two things – that members of the public may have more involvement in science than they give themselves credit for and that utilizing members of the public for scientific endeavors may involve them in the scientific community as a whole.

For many, science is defined as whatever subjects were labeled as “science” in school. This fairly rigid definition persists past formal education. Even if they’re in a job that’s heavily involved in science, like architecture or medicine, or a hobby like bird watching or hiking, there’s this mental divide between science and what they do. Projects like Citizen Science help break down this mental restriction and help people realize that science isn’t just what’s around them, but it’s something they’re already doing.

For researchers, projects like Citizen Science are effective as an ambassadorial initiative and as a tool. The aforementioned mental divide also puts science in the role of “the other”, as something not to be intuitively trusted, and makes advances in science harder to embrace. By encouraging people to involve themselves in science and immerse themselves in the community, we can encourage the view that science is something that you can trust intuitively, once you understand the inherent safeguards that go with the scientific method.