November 2020 - Building Foundation for the Sustainability Phase: An ETSI Webinar for Monastic Science Instructors Nov 4-20

ETSI offered a five-session webinar to about 50 science educators from monastic institutions that are core participants of its science programs. This series of orientation sessions aimed to provide an overview of the new sustainability phase programs and allow the science teachers to engage and interact with the ETSI faculty leaders.

The sustainability phase is a critical component of ETSI's mission to bring contemporary science into the core curriculum of Tibetan monasteries and promoting convergence of science and spirituality. This phase focuses on cultivating indigenous monastic science instructors through its summer pedagogy program and winter research program.

In this webinar, the sustainability faculty leaders--consisting of Dr. Meena Balgopal for the pedagogy of science, Dr. Robin Nusslock and Dr. Nicole Gerado for the scientific research unit, Dr. John Malko for physics, Dr. Arri Eisen for biology, Dr. Gillian Hue for neuroscience, and Tsondue Samphel for Buddhism and science integration—along with Dr. David Henderson, Dr. Mark Risjord, Dr. Tenzin Sonam, Dr. Kelsey Gray, and Geshe Dadul Namgyal, presented not only the six-year science curriculum and the syllabi for the sustainability phase, but also showcased ETSI's approach to teaching science. The participants had opportunities to discuss different pedagogical methods, scientific research strategies, and cross-disciplinary engagements. The webinar also focused on integrating the three primary units of the ETSI curriculum and how they, in turn, could be combined with Buddhist science and philosophy.