Comments

  1. Jean SmilingCoyote said:

    I plan to march for science in my city. If I were so sure it wouldn’t work, and had applied this stunning foresight to the rest of my life, I maybe shouldn’t have finished my college degree, because that hasn’t gotten me the career I got educated for. We try. I try other things, too. One doesn’t have to march to the exclusion of any other effort.

    1. Virginia Schutte said:

      Yes, I’ve seen lots of people in the MfS Facebook group lately asking what else they can do now and after the March. Hopefully lots of people are inspired to keep working toward March goals outside of the event itself. You also make a great point that goals can change over time. I hope your march goes well and you keep on trying!

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  2. Michael Dähne said:

    Backward design should have been used before writing this article: Although I definitely agree with Ms Schutte on that you should be specific on your goals and should think of what you achieve when you participate in certain actions and how you can achieve your goals, I do not agree at all that she is making a good statement of why you should not march for science. She is making a statement rather on that the goals have not been set correctly. My goals, when marching for science are clear: 1) Making people aware of that scientist are interested and involveld in political actions, 2) Making people aware of that science is a necessity for making political decisions, 3) Making a statement, that scientists around the globe are opposing the ‘concept of alternative facts’ which should be rather be termed ‘believes’ – they are a community that can speak with one voice. If the author would have applied ‘backward design’ before writing the article she would have realised that it is neither in her interest nor in the interest of the science community to have a public discussion on the goals of the march for science here. The aim of changing the goals may have been achieved by direct communication with the organizers. The goal that is now achieved is discrediting the march of science as tool to express the concerns of scientists regarding a change in US and world wide politics. I will march for science and hope that Ms Schutte will do so too and that whe will undertake also all the other efforts that she is stating in the article, that on most parts make sense, although I do not think they are alternatives to the march – they are extensions and should be part of everdays work as a scientist.