Buddhism in Culturally Responsive
Engineering and Science Education
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AU T H OR : MA R I S O L MERC A DO S A NT I AG O
[ S C H O O L O F EN G IN EER IN G ED U C ATIO N, PU R D U E U N IVER S IT Y ]
S E C O N D A U T H O R S : A L I C E L . P AW L E Y & D O N A L D W. M I T C H E L L
1 2 T H S A K YA D H I T A C O N F E R E N C E 2 0 1 1
Questions that we will explore in this presentation:
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 What does Buddhism have to offer to engineering and
science education?
 How do Buddhist concepts can be integrated in
science and engineering education? (for Buddhist
youngsters in Buddhist schools) For what purposes?
Content
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 What is engineering?
 Culturally relevant approach to education
 Buddhist concepts that can be integrated in
engineering and science education

Case scenarios (examples) in teaching and learning
What is Engineering?
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Design
Implementation
(also known as:
construction,
production,
development)
 Activities to design and develop technologies, systems, products,
processes, structures, buildings, etcetera.
 Industrial Revolution of the Western world (late 19th century)
 needed skilled workers  academia started engineering programs. Civil
engineering being one of the first ones.
Example of Engineering Design Projects
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 Photos of projects done by pre-college and college
students (Western context):
Building a ramp
structure. It helps the
child to explore physics
(force and motion)
(K-12 level)
http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/beyon
d/seed/zan.html
Robot that lifts aluminum
cans (pre-college level)
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/i
mages/+2009/boiler-greenrobots1.jpg
Solar-powered low-cost
neonatal incubator
(college level)
http://www.scu.edu/engineer
ing/enews/2011winter/researc
h.cfm
Culturally relevant approach to education
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 Geneva Gay (2000):
(1) Validates and respects the perspective of diverse
cultural heritages
(2) Establishes relationships between academic
abstractions and the children’s sociocultural
reality.
(3) Uses diverse ways of teaching to fit in the
different learning styles.
(4) Incorporation of multicultural education
Buddhist concepts
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The Four Noble Truths
2. Dependent Origination and Interdependence
3. Greed (lobha) as a Poison of the Mind that Impacts
the World
4. The Principle of Ahimsa (non-violence or non-harm)
1.
Case Scenario #1: The Four Noble Truths as a Framework
for Engineering Design
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 A community teacher guides high school students in a
village school to identify and design a solution for
one of the village’s development problems.
Case Scenario #1: The Four Noble Truths as a Framework
for Engineering Design
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Stage of the
Engineering design
Teacher will help the students to:
(Preamble)
Acquire basic knowledge of engineering and research:
Why do we need to know this knowledge? How
research is relevant in engineering? How will it help us
in a future?...
First step
Investigate about one development problem of the
village
Second step
Investigate about the causes of the problem. How it is
affecting?
Third step
Investigate about the desirable solution (outcomes)
Fourth step
Design and create a prototype (small-scaled model that
will solve the problem). Proposal and presentation.
Dependent Origination
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 Related to interdependence (de Silva, 1998) and
emptiness.
 Emptiness – everything lacks of inherent existence;
thus, in reality everything is interconnected in a nexus
of interdependence.
 How can we associate dependent origination with
engineering and sustainability education?
Case scenario #2: Production of biofuels in a bigger
picture1
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CO2
CO2
CO2
CO2
CO2
CO2
CO2
CO2
CO2
CO2
Greenhouse effect
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Radiation
from the sun
Sun
Increase of heat in Earth results in:
• Change in animals migration patterns.
• Increase of floods, heavy rain in some
areas.
• Melting of ice in the poles, rising sea
levels.
• Drying of forests.
• Loss of wildlife…
Greenhouse gases
(such as carbon dioxide (CO2)) absorb
heat and contribute to the increase of
global warming, which is in itself a
natural process of the Earth.
Atmosphere
Greed (lobha) as a Poison of the Mind
that Impacts the World
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 Greed  high consumerism  more demand in
Earth’s natural resources and services  contribute in
the increment of CO2  greenhouse effect.
 Many authors have related greed to practices that have
made a strong negative impact in the environment
(e.g., Swearer, 1997; Sivaraksa, 2000; Sure, 2010).
Greed (lobha) as a Poison of the Mind
that Impacts the World
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 Engineering contribute to industries and manufacturing
of products that support the chain of consumerism:
“Engineers create factories in towns and cause
villagers to move away from their families to find
work. Engineers contribute more than possibly any
other profession (apart from business itself) to the
movement of capital throughout the world which
causes all developing countries to become
increasingly market driven. These are what we need to
guard against, are responsible for and can do
something about”
(Baillie, 2009, p. 83)
Case Scenario #3:
Impermanence and the Product Lifecycle
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 Teacher-students reflective dialogue about the
impact of greed and high consumerism: what
happens when a society keeps cultivating an urge to
consume, not being satisfied with what they have.
 Teacher can bring knowledge about the products
lifecycle and connect it to the principle of
impermanence.

What happens when people keep consuming nonbiodegradable products without proper recycling?
Case Scenario #3:
Impermanence and the Product Lifecycle
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 Story of Stuff (2010) International Website – video
that explains the products lifecycle, linked to
consumerism, and environmental pollution.
http://www.storyofstuff.com/international/
Industrial Products Life Cycle
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Selling
Transportation
Extraction of Earth’s
resources
Production
Product use
Engineers
What other alternatives
to discard the product
do we have?
The Principle of Ahimsa (non-violence or non-harm)
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 Ahimsa is a commitment to non-harm (Sure, 2010, p. 67).
 Teacher-students reflective dialogue about the
relationship between unethical manufacturing
activities (where many engineers work) and
environmental pollution

What can we do about it if we would have the opportunity
to become engineers?:
“While consumer good manufacturers may not intentionally
choose to cause harm, their actions nonetheless often leave
death and injury in their wake. [….] Producers justify
tremendous harm to many forms of life to meet the bottom line
of profit and gain” (Kaza, 2005, p. 143)
Case Scenario #4: Importance of ethics in
engineering
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 Teacher-students reflective dialogue about the
importance of ethics in engineering2:



Each field of engineering has its own professional ethics
code.
We can guide our engineering and science practices
through Buddhist ethics as well.
How do the teachings of the Buddha can be applied to
ethical conduct in engineering?
The interdependence of individual and society
 Social responsibility
 Karma and conditioning

Case Scenario #4: Importance of mindfulness in
engineering
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 Teacher-students reflective dialogue about the
importance of mindfulness in engineering design
and implementation:


How do current and future engineers can protect the
environment while at the same time meet the needs of the
people?
Design mindful of impermanence:

What will happen to the product after it will cease to be useful?
 Consider:
• Biodegradable materials
• Ways to reduce CO2 in the production and distribution of the
product
Conclusion
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 Overview of culturally responsive education and
engineering
 Connected four Buddhist concepts with examples of
teaching and learning engineering and science for
youngsters in Buddhist schools.
 We hope that these examples may support grassroots
educational initiatives connecting engineering,
science, ethics, sustainability, and Buddhism.
Acknowledgements
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 This material is based upon work supported by the
National Science Foundation Graduate Research
Fellowship.
 Marisol is grateful to the following people:
 Professors A.L. Pawley, D. W. Mitchell, D. Evangelou, and B.
Jesiek
 Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center (Bloomington,
Indiana, United States)
 Carlos A. Santiago Quintana
 Buddhist communities of Puerto Rico
Update
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 Working paper: Connection of an engineering design
activity with the Four Noble Truths and a Buddhist
leadership model.

Second author: Donald W. Mitchell (Dept. of Philosophy,
Purdue University)
 Future doctoral dissertation: development and
research of an introduction to engineering for
Tibetans in a school in India (probably Dharamsala).
Note
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 I would love to keep in contact with you if this paper
helps in your school or if you need my support in any
way.
 After I finish my doctoral degree it is my intention to
help support Buddhist nunneries and children’s
schools.
Questions? Suggestions?
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 Marisol Mercado Santiago: msantiago16@purdue.edu
Purdue University
School of Engineering Education
Armstrong Hall
701 West Stadium Avenue
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2045
Dr. Alice L. Pawley: apawley@purdue.edu [School of Eng. Ed.]
Dr. Donald. W. Mitchell: dmitch@purdue.edu [Dept. of Philosophy]
References
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Please, see entire list of references in the paper
Baillie, C. (2009). Engineering and society: Working towards social justice part I:
Engineering and society. Morgan & Claypool Publishers. doi:
10.2200/S00136ED1V01Y200905ETS008
de Silva, P. (1998). Environmental philosophy and ethics in Buddhism. New York, NY:
St. Martin’s Press, Inc.
Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. New
York: Teachers College.
Kaza, S. (2005). Penetrating the tangle. In S. Kaza (Ed.), Hooked!: Buddhist writings on
greed, desire, and the urge to consume (pp. 139-151). Boston, MA: Shambhala
Publications, Inc.
Kemavuthanon, S., & Duberley, J. (2009). A Buddhist view of leadership: the case of
the OTOP project. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 30(8), 737-758.
doi:10.1108/01437730911003902
Punnadhammo, A. (2010). Dependent origination and the causes and conditions
behind the climate crisis. In D. W. Mitchell & W. Skudlarek, OSB (Eds.), Green
monasticism: A Buddhist-Catholic response to an environmental calamity (pp. 39-46).
Brooklyn, New York: Lantern Books.
References
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 Sivaraksa, S. (2000). Development as if people mattered. In S. Kaza &
K. Kraft (Eds.), Dharma rain: Sources of Buddhist environmentalism
(pp. 183-190). Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, Inc.
 Sure, H. (2010). The monastic rules of Theravada and Mahayana
Buddhism: The Bhikshu Pattimokha and the ten major and forty-eight
minor Bodhisattva precepts from the Net of Brahma (Brahmajmala)
Sutra. In D. W. Mitchell & W. Skudlarek, OSB (Eds.), Green
monasticism: A Buddhist-Catholic response to an environmental
calamity (pp. 61-75). Brooklyn, New York: Lantern Books.
 Swearer, D. K. (1997). The hermeneutics of Buddhist ecology in
contemporary Thailand: Buddhadāsa and Dhammapitaka. In M. E.
Tucker & D. R. Williams, Buddhism and ecology: The interconnection
of dharma and deeds (pp. 21-44). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
 The Story of Stuff. (2010). The story of stuff with Annie Leonard.
Retrieved from http://www.storyofstuff.com/international/index.html