In an exploratory project over 12 months, we investigated the role and impact of online citizen science (OCS) participation in primary school science education in four schools. Our inquiry focused on the potential of participation in online citizen science projects to support development of science capabilities for citizenship, teacher practices in embedding this new paradigm in their science units, and student behaviour when participating using different digital device setups. Our findings help teachers follow the successful practice of their colleagues who participated in our project. Findings also helped to develop professional development resources that are shared on the Science Learning Hub. We also report insights that have important implications on the development of best practices for purposeful digital device use in classroom settings.