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HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS IN THE COURSE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE,
TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY
WHAT IS SCIENCE?
Science is intertwined with our
everyday lives. It affects us all, 24/7, from
the moment we wake up, all day long
and through the night. Your cellphone,
laptop, earthquake report, the medicine
that treat your fever, be it in tablet form or
syrup, have all been brought to you
courtesy of science. Today, the modern
world would not be called “Modern" if it is
not for technology enabled by science.

1)Botany is the study of plants where
most of the medicines that we have
were derived from these plants.
2)Zoology is the science of animals.
3)Microbiology is the science of
microorganisms.
Physics- is the science of energy and
its transformation.
Some of the notable products of physics
are jets and LASER.
THE KITE EXPERIMENT
As people's scientific knowledge
increased, more complicated machines
became a reality. The impact of new
technology in our daily lives is to give less
work and jobs that can be done faster.
Science is a systematized body of
knowledge. It is an organized and
dynamic inquiry (following scientific
method). It is knowledge gained through
observation
and
experimentation.
Science is a human activity, scientists. It is
a social enterprise, people, knowledge,
skills,
facilities,
apparatuses,
and
technologies. Science leads to the
formation
of
concepts,
methods,
principles, theories, law, and procedures
that seek to describe and explain nature
and its phenomena.
The major branches of science include:
 Chemistry- the science of the
chemical composition and the
changes accompanied.
 Biology- the study of living things. It has
three main branches:
Franklin made a simple kite and
attached a wire to its top (this act as a
lightning rod). To the bottom of the kite,
he secured an act hemp string, where he
then connected a silk string. The hemp,
wet from the rain, would conduct an
electrical charge quickly. The silk string,
kept dry as Franklin held it in the doorway
of a shed, wouldn't.
The metal key was the last piece of the
puzzle. Together with his son's help,
Franklin attached it to the hemp string
and got the kite aloft. At the moment
when he’s starting to lose hope, he
realized that loose fibers of the hemp
string erected; it was as if the string was
deferred by some type of a typical
conductor."
Franklin adjusted the proximity of his
finger to the key, doing so the metal
piece’s negative charges were attracted
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HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS IN THE COURSE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
to his hand’s positive charge, he then felt
a spark.
"Struck
with
this
promising
appearance, he immediately presented
his knuckle to the key, and the discovery
was complete. He perceived a very
evident electric spark,"
With the utilization of the Leyden jar,
Franklin "collected electric fire very
copiously,
that "electric fire"—or
electricity—could then be discharged
later.
(Franklin 1752) states that " To
demonstrate, in the thorough manner
possible, the sameness of the electric fluid
with the matter of lightning, Dr. Franklin,
astonishing as it must have appeared,
contrived actually to bring lightning from
the heavens, using an electrical kite,
which he raised when a storm of thunder
was perceived to be coming on."
WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY?
Derived from the Greek word
technologia, Technology means the
"systematic treatment of art." Technology
as materials products; results of scientific
inquiry;
hardware produced by a
scientist.
Technology
is
applying
knowledge in solving scientific and
practical problems that will help humans
survive and improve their
lives—
technology as human cultural activities or
endeavors.
Technology
as
a
social enterprise – Technology 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—technology
as modern technology based on the
advances of science since the end of
WWII to the present.
What are the uses of technology? It is
enumerated as follows:
1) Technology helps in the discovery and
production of medicine,
2) Technology helps to preserve food,
and
3) Technology helps us to develop new
sources of energy.
The laptop is one of the products of
technology. Below are the products of
technology. Many lives have been
saved, thanks to modern technology.
Today, a blocked artery’s blood flow can
be restored through the process of
angioplasty.
Science was the philosophy domain,
while technology was the domain of
tanners, millers, and goldsmiths.
THE COMPUTER
The computer has many uses, and one
of those is to make our lives easier to deal
with. This module was aided with the help
of a computer.
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HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS IN THE COURSE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
A calculator is one of the blessings of
a computer. Computers are many times
faster than calculators! One of the
remarkable wonders of computers is that
it can be used in the field of medicine, like
the use of ultrasound projection.
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY
(STS)
Science, technology, and society
(STS), also referred to as science and
technology studies, study how social,
political, and cultural values affect
scientific research and technological
innovation and how they affect society.
STS scholars are interested in various
problems, including the relationships
between
scientific
and
technological innovations and culture
and the directions and risks of science
and technology. The field of STS is related
to science's history and philosophy,
although with a much broader emphasis
on the social aspects of science and
technology.
Science, technology, and society refer
to the interaction between science
and technology and social, cultural,
political, and economic contexts which
shape and are shaped by them, specific
examples throughout human history of
scientific
and
technological
developments.
Science, technology, and society (STS)
study
how
social,
political,
and
cultural values affect scientific research
and technological innovation and affect
the community. It also refers to the
interaction
between
science
and
technology and cultural, social, political,
and economic contexts which shape and
are shaped by them, specific examples
throughout human history of scientific and
technological developments.
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.
ANCIENT TIMES
SUMERIAN CIVILIZATION
Sumeria, found on the southernmost tip
of the ancient Mesopotamia, 3500 BCE, is
a great city with a civilization known as
Sumer. The concept of inventing the
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wheel came during 3500 B.C. the
Sumerian people are perplexed about
the limitations on just how much weight
humans can carry over land. The idea
came about to connect a non
moving platform to a rolling cylinder—
the sail and plow, which improved trade
and farming.
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.
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
Babylonian civilization emerged from
about 3,500 until 500 BC. They were
located on the border of the Euphrates
and Tigris rivers in Iraq. The Babylonians dig
canals and developed earthen dikes to
irrigate their crops and provide water to
their livestock. They innovate upon the
Sumerian
sexagesimal
system.
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 equally-spaced signs, each one
associated with a zodiacal constellation.
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION
Ancient Egypt began between 5,0003,100BC and is found in the northeast area
of continental Africa. The River Nile has
sustained
the Egyptians
with
the
necessary water requirements to support
agricultural activities.
Egyptians produced a variety of
earthenware and pottery items. They also
worked on metals to produce tools,
weapons, and agricultural implements.
They constructed dwellings made of
reeds and air-dried mud bricks. They built
the famous pyramids, and they devised a
365-day calendar. This solar calendar has
365-day per cycle. 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.
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.
GREEK CIVILIZATION
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. The alarm clock was
invented by the ancient Greeks.
They made use of water that dropped
into drums, which sounded the alarm.
Another contribution of Greek civilization
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HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS IN THE COURSE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
is
windmills,
which
were
used
in agricultural processing like milling of
grains.
ROMAN CIVILIZATION
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. 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.
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.
CHINESE CIVILIZATION
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.
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.
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.
MIDIEVAL/MIDDLE AGES
There’s a point in time between
ancient times and the modern times that
we live in today. This time period is
reflected to be one of the most creative
times in mankind’s history. It is believed
that it’s here that sparked the beginning
of the first industrial revolution.
JOHAN GUTENBERG (PRINTING PRESS)
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.
ZACHARIAS JANSSEN (COMPOUND
MICROSCOPE)
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 (TELESCOPE)
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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HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS IN THE COURSE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
MODERN TIMES
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.
LOUIS PASTEUR (PASTEURIZATION)
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 (TELEPHONE)
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.
ALEXANDER FLEMING (PENICILLIN)
In
1928,
the
Scottish
scientist
Alexander Fleming noticed a bacteriafilled Petri dish in his laboratory, the
sample had become contaminated with
mold, and everywhere the mold was, the
bacteria were dead. Penicillin was being
mass-produced and advertised in 1944.
SAMUEL M. KIER (KEROSENE)
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.