SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
LESSON 1
SCIENCE
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systematized body of knowledge
an organized and dynamic inquiry
knowledge gained through observation and experimentation
a human activity; scientists.
social enterprise; people, knowledge, skills, facilities,
apparatuses, and technologies
leads to the formation of concepts, methods, principles,
theories, law, and procedures that seek to describe and explain
nature and its phenomena.
Study of knowing
Major branches:
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Chemistry
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Biology - three main branches:
 Botany
 Zoology
 Microbiology
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Physics
COMPUTER
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to make our lives easier to deal with
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A calculator
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it can be used in the field of medicine, ultrasound projection
TECHNOLOGY
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Greek word technologia
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"systematic treatment of art“
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results of scientific inquiry; hardware produced by a scientist
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applying knowledge in solving scientific and practical
problems that will help humans survive and improve their lives
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—as human cultural activities or endeavor
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-- as a social enterprise
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– is a complex system of knowledge, skills, people, methods,
tools, materials, and resources applied and allocated to the
development, operation, and production of a new or improved
product, process, or services
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Makes task easier
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Advantages of Technology
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Technology helps in the discovery and production of
medicine,
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Technology helps to preserve food, and
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Technology helps us to develop new sources of energy.
LESSON 2
ANCIENT, MIDDLE AND MODERN AGES
INTRODUCTION
A number of technological innovations begun at the rise of intelligent
human beings. As they continue to advance and encounter problems
down their path, they began inventing solutions to make their life
easier. They are responsible for how our world has changed and
evolved throughout the years; they are responsible for our
civilization; they are responsible for how people live and the known
structure of our society.
Our five senses are vital for early humans to find their bearing and
understand how things work around them. The Egyptians were the
pioneers that have explained the existence of our universe. The
earliest civilization known to recorded history started with the
Egyptians and Sumerians five millenniums ago. Have you wondered
how these early civilizations pushed beyond their known realities and
explored the possibility of a universe, a concept that is alien to them?
Here we shall embark on a journey through time as we discuss the
STS of the ancient, middle, and modern ages.
LECTURE
Ancient Times
Sumerian Civilization
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Sumeria, found on the southernmost tip of the ancient
Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq and Kuwait) which is generally
considered the cradle of civilization, 3500 BCE, is a great city
with a civilization known as Sumer.
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The name comes from Akkadian, the language of the north of
Mesopotamia, and means “land of the civilized kings”.
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The sumerians called themselves “the black headed people”
and their land, in cuneiform script, was simply “the land” or
“the land of the black headed people” and, in the biblical Book
of Genesis, Sumer is known as Shinar. The concept of
inventing the wheel came during 3500 B.C.
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The Sumerian people are perplexed about the limitations on
just how much weight humans can carry over land.
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The idea came about to connect a non-moving platform to a
rolling cylinder—the sail and plow, which improved trade and
farming.
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The Sumerians introduced the 360-day calendar, and they
devised the Sexagesimal number system, it is a number system
through which counting is in units and intervals of sixty (60).
This has become the basis for graduating the circumference of
a circle to 360 degrees and the sixty-minute equal graduations
to an hour duration in time
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Sumerians developed the first writing system known as
cuneiform. It utilizes word pictures and triangular symbols that
are carved on clay using wedge instruments and then left to dry.
This was used to keep records of things with great historical
value or their everyday life.
Babylonian Civilization
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Babylonian civilization emerged from about 3,500 until 500
BC. They were located on the border of the Euphrates and
Tigris rivers in Iraq. Babylon is the most famous city from
ancient Mesopotamia whose ruins lie in modern-day Iraq 59
miles (94 km) southwest of Baghdad. The name is thought to
derive from bav-il or bav-ilim which, in the Akkadian language
of the time, meant ‘Gate of God’ or “Gate of the Gods’ and
‘Babylon coming from the Greek.
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The Babylonians dig canals and developed earthen dikes to
irrigate their crops and provide water to their livestock.
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They innovate upon the Sumerian sexagesimal system.
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Astronomers of Babylon compiled lists of planets and stars
which somewhat accurately pictured the positions of the
celestial bodies of our solar system in terms of 12 equallyspaced signs, each one associated with a zodiacal constellation.
Egyptian Civilization
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Ancient Egypt began between 5,000-3,100 BC and is found in
the northeast area of continental Africa.
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The River Nile has sustained the Egyptians with the necessary
water requirements to support agricultural activities.
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Egyptians produced a variety of earthenware and pottery items.
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They also worked on metals to produce tools, weapons, and
agricultural implements.
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They constructed dwellings made of reeds and air-dried mud
bricks.
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They built the famous pyramids, and they devised a 365-day
calendar.
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This solar calendar has 365-day per cycle.
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The year is made up of three seasons that have a hundred and
twenty days each; this includes an intercalary month consisting
of epagomenal days of five; this is treated separately from the
year proper.
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Another contribution is the papyrus. They were able to process
the Papyrus plant in order to produce thin sheets on which one
could write down things. Egyptians developed a system of
writing using symbols, known as hieroglyphs.
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Modern Times
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Greek Civilization
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This civilization shaped the modern intellectual world we know
today. It emerged at around 1,100 BC; the Greek civilization
focused on scientific works of great Greek philosophers in the
likes of Socrates, Thales, Hippocrates, Archimedes, Aristotle,
Archimedes, and Ptolemy. Their contributions became the
foundation and pillars of western ideals and civilization.
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The alarm clock was invented by the ancient Greeks. They
made use of water that dropped into drums, which sounded the
alarm.
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Another contribution of Greek civilization is windmills, which
were used in agricultural processing like milling of grains.
1.
Roman Civilization
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Roman's great contribution is the Gazette, the first newspaper
which contains announcements of the Roman Empire to the
people. These were engraved in metal or stone tablets and then
publicly displayed.
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Record-keeping was easier when the paper was invented; the
Roman Empire was able to produce the first book or codex,
which was composed of papyrus pages bound together with an
animal skin as its cover.
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The Romans devised their own number system specifically to
address the need for a standard counting method that would
meet their increasing communication and trade concerns.
The Chinese Civilization
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The oldest civilization in Asia is Chinese civilization. Silk is
one of the things that connect Far East China to the world.
Another was the use of acupuncture, which uses needles in
which Chinese doctors used this to treat diseases. Tea, which is
made of crushed dried tea leaves, was developed, and the first
tea was drunk by a Chinese emperor.
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Gun powder was developed by Chinese alchemists. It is made
up of charcoal, sulfur, and potassium nitrate, which can
generate large amounts of heat and gas in an instant.
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China is also famous for its largest and most extensive
infrastructure, the great wall of china. It is made of stone, brick,
wood, earth, and other materials.
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Medieval/ Middle Ages
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There’s a point in time between ancient times and the modern
times that we live in today.
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This time period is reflected to be one of the most creative
times in mankind’s history.
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It is believed that it’s here that sparked the beginning of the
first industrial revolution.
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PROPONENTS
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Johan Gutenberg was able to invent the first printing press
which is a more reliable way of printing using a cast type. He
utilized wooden machines that extracted juices from fruits,
attached to them a metal impression of the letters, and pressed
firmly the cast metal into a piece of paper, which then made an
exact impression on paper. The printing press was invented to
address the need for publishing books that would spread
information to many people at a faster rate.
Guided by the principles used for the invention of eyeglasses in
earlier years, the compound microscope was developed by
Zacharias Janssen. The microscope was key in discovering new
means in preventing and curing various illnesses. It is a device
that magnify things invisible to the naked eye.
Galileo Galilei improved the telescope. He used that telescope
to discovered new celestial bodies such as four of the moons
circling Jupiter, to study Saturn, the observation of the phases
of Venus, and the study sunspots on the Sun and found support
for a heliocentric solar system, Copernicus’ theory.
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The rise of the modern industry was witnessed in the 19th
century. The effects of scientific and technological
developments are evident in the areas of communication,
transportation, and electricity. Food processing and medicine
posed some of the bigger challenges since health was of great
concern.
A French Biologist, Microbiologist, and Chemist by the name
of Louis Pasteur found a way to solve the problem of food
deterioration for dairy products due to spoiling. These goods
need to be consumed immediately after production, or they
would cause illnesses like diphtheria, food poisoning, and
typhoid fever. The answer is pasteurization, wherein it is a
process of heating dairy products to kill the harmful bacteria
that cause them to spoil faster.
Alexander Graham Bell was the first to be awarded a patent for
the electric telephone in 1876. Though several inventors did
pioneering work on electronic voice transmission, the invention
quickly took off and revolutionized global business and
communication.
In 1928, the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming noticed a
bacteria-filled Petri dish in his laboratory, the sample had
become contaminated with mold, and everywhere the mold was,
the bacteria were dead. That antibiotic mold turned out to be
the fungus Penicillium, and over the next two decades,
chemists purified it and developed the drug Penicillin, which
fights a huge number of bacterial infections in humans without
harming the humans themselves. Penicillin was being massproduced and advertised in 1944.
Samuel M. Kier was able to invent kerosene by refining
petroleum. Illuminating oil was the other name of kerosene
because it was used to provide lighting to homes and later was
applied for heating purposes.