The conclusions of science depend on experiments.
Experiments are constant attempts to establish the correctness or fallacy of thoughts and ideas.
Thus, experimentation is the way science attempts to settle controversy. When well-designed experiments are performed and analyzed, the controversy may be settled. But the new knowledge derived from well-run experiments also engenders new controversy, and this becomes a part of the creative growth of science. Citizens can make important contributions to these understandings of the natural world. Or maybe you'd just like to know more about birds, like why winter finches are abundant some years but not others, or how different bird populations are changing across North America.