Another aspect that defines Spit for Science is that the project is about more than the science. By design, it is bigger than the research aims. An integral part of Spit for Science is to use the project as a vehicle to raise awareness and to give the science back to the participants and the broader community in ways that benefit them. The high visibility of the project makes it a great opportunity to raise awareness. We use the project as a way to broadly introduce students to the importance of research. At our welcome week information sessions described above, we emphasize the critical role that universities play in generating knowledge, in addition to disseminating knowledge. Further, we emphasize the many ways that research impacts our lives, and we emphasize how they can play a critical role in that research, and by corollary, the discoveries and policies that come out of the research. We also use Spit for Science as a means to raise awareness about substance use and emotional health issues on college campuses and to get students talking
