What do citizen scientists think about?

During our Final Event weekend in York (#parentsdoscience), we invited everyone to contribute to our Head poster that asked “What are you thinking about?”.

Anyone could write anything at any time, and so we ended up with everything, from admiration for fellow PSG members to thoughts on the nature of public engagement! Interestingly, PSG members’ thoughts seem to tend towards questions – this is group of people who are always wanting to take the next step.

The future was a key theme, both in for the PSG community as a whole and the impact of our research.

• This has been great! How do we use what we found to change practice?
• How can we take this forward – what comes next? What amazing things we have done!
• How can we get access to more funding to continue our research?
• How can we expand what we are doing and recruit more?

This was the first time that most people had met other PSG members in person, and everyone was generally impressed by what they found:

• Never been in discussions with so many passionate bolshy women I can’t get a word in for once! I love it!
• How is it that PSG parents are as like-minded as they are diverse?

And there was lots to say about the benefits of citizen science:

• Loving the learning opportunities and chance to add to research body of evidence
• When we get to talk to professional scientists they tell us when they don’t know things. This;
  • Makes them more credible
  • Leaves room for us to make our own decisions
• How can we get more scientists involved with citizen scientist as contributors not just data collectors?

We also found out how PSG members feel and what they wanted to do now.