MARTIN, Joanna Grace L. Week 1 – Reflection/Evaluation 1. Why is STS called “Science, Technology and Society,” and not “Science and Technology and Village”, or “Science and Technology and Community”, or even “Science, Technology and Tribe”? Science, technology and society is the study how science and technology influences society. Through this field, society is analyzed on its reaction and incorporation of science and technology. It is called Science, Technology because it studies the production, distribution and utilization of scientific knowledge and technological systems occur which the consequences of these activities upon different groups of people. Furthermore, the reason why it was named Science, Technology and Society is because the term society is general, and the course aims to correlate the three independent fields and how each one of them affects the other. Indeed, science and technology has been changing the world from time to time through endless discoveries and inventions and society in return adapts to these changes for good. If it is named any of the other choices, the course would be more likely to focus how society behaves rather than how society adapts the technological evolution made by science and technology. 2. From the list of inventions and discoveries related to your course that you previously created in the Activity part, how does item in your list qualify to be relevant to your course? Present your table and your reason for each item. DATE 600 BCE 1703 1803 1960s 1966 1973 1989 INVENTION OR DISCOVERY Thales of Miletus discovers static electricity Gottfried Leibniz pioneers the binary number system now used in virtually all computers Henry and Sealy Pourdrinier develop the papermaking machine Douglas Engelbart develops the computer mouse Robert H. Dennard of IBM invents dynamic random access memory (DRAM) Computer Robert Metcalfe figures out a simple way of linking computers together that he names Ethernet. Most computers hooked up to the internet now use it. Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web PRESENT INVENTION Electricity Computers Paper Computer mouse Computer memory Computer networks/Internet World Wide Web The table above shows the list of discoveries and inventions related to my course which is Accountancy. With the invention of papermaking machine by Henry and Sealy Pourdrinie which is paper in present invention, we are in need of this type of invention in order to classify transactions and write it on a ledger and we also use it in reviewing, writing notes, solving problems etc. Moreover, on the side of more advanced inventions like computers, computer mouse and computer memory also help accountants to input and store data and as well as make changes and alleviate the need to keep paper files especially nowadays that the environment is rapidly changing and in order to help, one can go digital to lessen its paper wastes or by helping through planting as well. These advanced inventions also help accountants make financial information processes faster, more accurate and more readily accessible. And especially during this time of pandemic which is everyone is limited to go outside, accountants need Internet and World Wide Web to securely store data in different websites provided by the company and in order to easily communicate to different departments for a business to expand its operation. Lastly, in order to function these inventions, accountants need electricity to make it work. Indeed, the spark of the advance technologies contributed a drastic change in the field of business which result a widespread of different ways and means to allocate resources efficiently – helping the business entities dominate in its respective markets. 3. Did this pandemic (COVID-19) cause a paradigm shift? Explain in the perspective of science, technology and society. Based on the learnings I have obtained, paradigm shift is a change in people’s usual ways of living to a new and different ways. The birth of Covid-19 has greatly impacted the people, the countries, the entire world, and their economies. People were afraid that they might get the said virus; thus, they turned their systems and methods in a way that everyone should observe social distancing, avoid physical contact, and do things virtually with technologies. As such, the term “new normal” has been used to describe how people changed and modified their usual way of living to cope up and survive while waiting for the vaccine. Education were taken online, businesses adapted the power of e-commerce, and other industries has imposed limitations to stop and minimize the local transmission. In response to this global crisis which infected and killed millions of people, doctors and different scientist has aimed to produce a vaccine which could possibly kill or stop this year-long agony and today, the vaccine is about to roll out and was projected that millions of people will be vaccinated within a year.
