Podcaster: Nancy Alima Ali
Title: Cultural Astronomy – Science for Monks
Organization: Multiverse, Space Sciences Lab, University of California at Berkeley
Links: http://multiverse.ssl.berkeley.edu/, http://www.astroalima.com http://www.scienceformonks.org, https://myheadisinthestars.wordpress.com
Description: Vivian White from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific talks with Nancy Ali from UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Lab about her experience teaching astronomy to Tibetan Buddhist monks in India as part of the Exploratorium’s Science for Monks project. Topics discussed include cultural perspectives of the Universe, ways of learning astronomy and the purpose of science according to Tibetan Buddhist monks.
Bio: Nancy Alima Ali, M.Ed., is a Coordinator of Public Programs at Multiverse at the Space Sciences Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. For over 15 years, Ms. Ali has been active in both formal and informal education as a classroom teacher, college instructor, museum educator, curriculum developer and program manager. Ms. Ali has a particular interest in exploring the ways in which multiple worldviews contribute to our understanding of the cosmos. She blogs about the intersection of astronomy and culture at www.astroalima.com.
Guest Bio: Vivian White is an astronomy educator with the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. She uses her physics degree, telescopes, and love of humanity to inspire people to look up in wonder. Working mostly in informal science settings, she currently designs activities for amateur astronomers engaged in public outreach through the NASA Night Sky Network. She is also part of an NSF grant researching meaningful experiences for preschool children accessing astronomy in museums. Her past decade has included teaching classroom educators hands-on astronomy, middle schoolers practical math, and pre-med students dangerous physics; as well as showing off the splendors of the heavens through observatories, summer camps, and national parks. When not pondering our whirling path through the universe, she regularly spaces out at her pottery wheel.
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Transcript:
Welcome and introductions
About the Science for Monks project
Funding for the project
About the monks
Activities done with the monks
Cultural worldviews of the Universe
Ways of learning science
Science and Tibetan Buddhist religious beliefs
Tibetan Buddhist monks views about the purpose of science
Additional resources: Science for Monks (project website) http://www.scienceformonks.org/, My Head is in the Stars (blog) https://myheadisinthestars.wordpress.com, Astronomers without Borders (Google hangout) https://youtu.be/R5DDIJjjs8Y, “Universe in a Single Atom” (book by The Dalai Lama)
Future of the Science for Monks project
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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