CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY, POMONA
ACADEMIC SENATE
GENERAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE
REPORT TO
THE ACADEMIC SENATE
GE-006-910
STS 201, Introduction to Science, Technology and Society,
General Education Area C2
General Education Committee
Date: 05/05/13
Executive Committee
Received and Forwarded
Date: May 15, 2013
Academic Senate
Date: May 22, 2013
FIRST READING
BACKGROUND:
GE-006-910, STS 201, Introduction to Science, Technology and Society
General Education Area C2
2
The referral is to recommend whether STS 201, “Introduction to Science,
Technology and Society,” be added as a General Education course in Area C2.
The proponent for the referral is Dr. Peter Ross of the Philosophy Department
and Director of the Science, Technology and Society Program.
STS 201 introduces students to the roles of science and technology in organizing
civilizations, through a study of the epistemology of science and the impact of
science and technology on society. It enables students to make better informed
and more moral decisions concerning science and technology, and gain an
historical perspective of the evolving nature of science. The course is of general
interest and its curriculum matches the general learning outcomes GE-C2 very
well.
RESOURCES RECOMMENDED:
Faculty teaching GE-C2 courses.
RESOURCES CONSULTED:
Professor Lin Wu, Chair, Geography and Anthropology Department
Professor Dorothy D. Willis, Anthropology
Professor Amanda Podany, Chair, History Department
Professor Dale R. Turner, Chair, Philosophy Department
Professor Peter Ross, Proponent, Philosophy Department
The Departments of Philosophy and History indicated that the referral had been
discussed at a Departmental level, obviating the need for further consultation
with individual Faculty.
DISCUSSION
The referral was reviewed by the GE Committee, and a subcommittee was
formed to contact Faculty and Departments in GE Area C2. The Philosophy
Department indicated that there was no overlap with existing GE C2 philosophy
courses; likewise, Professor Podany indicated that the History Department had
discussed the proposal and had no objections to STS 201 being adopted as an
Area C2 GE course.
The Geography and Anthropology Department’s sole objection to the referral was
that STS 201 would be misplaced in Humanities (Area C), and should rather be
part of Area D (Social Sciences):
“I have consulted Dr. DD Wills. Our consensus is that it was not clear why this [Ed: the
proposal to add STS 201 as a C2 GE course] is suggested as a humanities, not a social
sciences course - the course is much more concerned with scientific issues than is ANT 112,
which is really about culture, customs, aesthetics, and beliefs, thus making ANT 112 a clear
humanities course.” (Email from Professor Lin Wu, dated 3/21/2013)
GE-006-910, STS 201, Introduction to Science, Technology and Society
General Education Area C2
3
The GE Committee then examined closely the proponent’s justification for STS
201 as a (C2) GE course, the STS 201 ECO, and the Curriculum Guide for Areas
C2 and D. After brief discussion, the Committee unanimously agreed that STS
201 is best fit in GE Area C2.
The GE Committee also asked the proponent, Dr. Ross, to revise the ECO to
bring it into line with current standards for GE-course ECOs, which require that
the ECO state how the course relates to GE student learning objectives in its GE
area. The attached ECO is the revised version, which specifies how the course
fulfills C2 criteria, and how STS 201 relates to the GE Program’s objectives and
learning outcomes. The referral with the revised ECO was discussed and voted
on.
RECOMMENDATION:
The GE Committee voted unanimously to recommend that STS 201,
“Introduction to Science, Technology and Society,” be added to the General
Education Area C2, with the revised ECO as attached.
ATTACHMENTS
Revised ECO for STS 201
GE-006-910, STS 201, Introduction to Science, Technology and Society
General Education Area C2
4
CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY
College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences
Expanded Course Outline
Course Title:
Subject Area/Catalogue #:
Units:
CS #:
Component:
Grading Basis
Preparation:
Prepared By:
Date of last revision:
Introduction to Science,
Technology, and Society
STS 201
4
C2
Lecture/discussion
Graded
October 29, 2009
Peter Ross
May 5, 2013
I. Catalog Description
STS 201 Introduction to Science, Technology, and Society (4)
Examines the interrelation among science, technology, and society. Historical and
current cases bringing to light the nature of science, and the involvement of values in
science and technology. 4 lectures discussion.
▬
STS 201 focuses on science and technology as playing important roles in organizing
civilizations. It considers fundamental aspects of scientific epistemology - such as what
it is about scientific inquiry which distinguishes science from pseudoscience. The course
is also devoted to considering science and technology from the standpoint of human
values, thus enabling students to make better informed and more responsible moral
choices concerning science and technology (for example, in their evaluations of proposed
or established public policy). The course also takes up historical and current cases of
questionable, controversial, and contested science, examples of which could include
polygenism as an example of questionable science from mid-nineteenth century America,
continental drift as an example of science which was controversial in the early to midtwentieth century, and global warming as an example of science which has been recently
contested. Furthermore, the course takes up an understanding of the nature of science
from a broad historical perspective, considering how a theory (for example, astrology)
could be scientific during one period of history, but pseudoscientific during another
period of history.
II. Required Coursework and Background
None.
GE-006-910, STS 201, Introduction to Science, Technology and Society
General Education Area C2
5
III. Expected Outcomes
Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:
1. Broadly delineate intellectual foundations of science, including describe how
science is different from pseudoscience, and how innovative scientific research is
different from textbook science.
2. Discern ways in which science and technology impact society, for example, how
they impact public policy.
3. Discern ways in which society influences the development of science and
technology, for example, how political interests affect scientific inquiry and
technological development.
IV. Texts and Readings
Suggested Required Texts:
Martin Bridgstock, David Burch, John Forge, John Laurent, and Ian Lowe, Science,
Technology, and
Society: An Introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Rudi Volti, Society and Technological Change, 5th edition (New York: Worth
Publishers, 2006).
Morton E. Winston and Ralph D. Edelbach, editors, Society, Ethics, and Technology, 3rd
edition
(Belmont, Cal.: Wadsworth, 2006).
Philosophy of Science and Technology
Andrew Feenberg, Critical Theory of Technology (New York: Oxford University Press,
1991).
Ronald Giere, Science without Laws (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999).
Ian Hacking, The Social Construction of What? (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1999).
Philip Kitcher, Advancement of Science: Science without Legend (Oxford: Oxford
University Press,
1993).
Philip Kitcher, Science, Truth, and Democracy (New York: Oxford University Press,
2001).
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 3rd edition (Chicago: University
of Chicago
Press, 1996).
Thomas Kuhn, The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and
Change (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1977).
Helen Longino, The Fate of Knowledge (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press,
2001).
GE-006-910, STS 201, Introduction to Science, Technology and Society
General Education Area C2
6
Michael Ruse, Mystery of Mysteries: Is Evolution a Social Construction? (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1999).
History of Science and Technology
Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man, revised and expanded edition. (New York:
W. W. Norton & Company, 1996).
Lauren Graham, The Ghost of the Executed Engineer: Technology and the Fall of the
Soviet Union
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996).
Thomas P. Hughes, American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological
Enthusiasm,1870-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004).
David Hull, Science as a Process: An Evolutionary Account of the Social and
Conceptual Development
of Science (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988).
Daniel J. Kevles, The Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern
America, 2nd
edition (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987).
Edward J. Larson, Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory, (New
York: The Modern
Library, 2004).
David E. Nye, American Technological Sublime (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1994)
Londa Schiebinger, The Mind Has No Sex? Women in the Origins of Modern Science
(Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991).
Merritt Roe Smith and Gregory Clancey, editors, Major Problems in the History of
American Technology (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998).
Merritt Roe Smith and Leo Marx, editors, Does Technology Drive History? The
Dilemma of Technological Determinism (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1994).
Sociology of Science and Technology
Harry M. Collins and Trevor Pinch, The Golem: What You Should Know about
Science, 2nd edition
(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Harry M. Collins and Trevor Pinch, The Golem at Large: What You Should Know about
Technology
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Steve Fuller, The Philosophy of Science and Technology Studies (New York: Routledge,
2006).
Karin Knorr-Cetina, The Manufacture of Knowledge: An Essay on the Constructivist
and Contextual
Nature of Science (New York: Pergamon Press, 1981).
Karin Knorr-Cetina, Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge
(Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1998).
GE-006-910, STS 201, Introduction to Science, Technology and Society
General Education Area C2
7
Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, Laboratory Life: The Social Construction of Facts
(Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1986).
Michael Lynch, Scientific Practice and Ordinary Action: Ethnomethodology and Social
Studies of
Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
Sergio Sismondo, An Introduction to Science and Technology Studies (Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing,
2004).
Sharon Traweek, Beamtimes and Lifetimes: The World of High Energy Physicists
(Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1988).
Ethics and Public Policy of Science and Technology
Julian Agyeman, Sustainable Communities and the Challenge of Environmental Justice
(New York:
NYU Press, 2005).
Tom L. Beauchamp and LeRoy Walters, Contemporary Issues in Bioethics, 6th edition
(Belmont, Cal.:
Wadsworth, 2002).
Elof Axel Carlson, The Unfit: A History of a Bad Idea. Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.: Cold
Spring Harbor
Laboratory Press, 2001).
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962).
Paul T. Durban, editor, Critical Perspectives on Nonacademic Science and Engineering
(Bethlehem,
Penn.: Lehigh, 1991).
Paul T. Durban, Social Responsibility in Science, Technology, and Medicine (Bethlehem,
Penn.:
Lehigh University Press, 1992).
M. David Ermann, Mary B. Williams, Michele S. Shauf, Computers, Ethics, and Society,
2nd edition
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).
Eugene C. Hargrove, Foundations of Environmental Ethics (New York: Prentice Hall,
1989).
Alan Irwin and Brian Wynne, editors, Misunderstanding Science? The Public
Reconstruction of
Science and Technology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
Bruce Lewenstein, editor, When Science Meets the Public (Washington, D. C.: AAAS,
1992).
John T. Lyle, Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development (New York: John Wiley
& Sons,
Inc., 1994).
Deborah G. Mayo and Rachelle D. Hollander, Acceptable Evidence: Science and Values
in Risk
Management (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
GE-006-910, STS 201, Introduction to Science, Technology and Society
General Education Area C2
8
Dorothy Nelkin, editor, Controversy: Politics of Technical Decisions, 3rd edition
(Newbury Park, Cal.:
Sage, 1992).
Dorothy Nelkin, editor, Selling Science: How the Press Covers Science and Technology
(New York:
W. H. Freeman, 1995).
Louis P. Pojman, editor, Environmental Ethics: Readings in Theory and Application, 4th
edition
(Belmont, Cal.: Wadsworth, 2004).
Daniel Sarewitz, Frontiers of Illusion: Science, Technology and the Politics of Progress
(Philadelphia:
Temple University Press, 1996).
Richard E. Sclove, Democracy and Technology (New York: Guilford, 1995).
Langdon Winner, Autonomous Technology: Technics Out-of-Control as a Theme in
Political Thought
(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1977).
Langdon Winner, The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High
Technology
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986).
V. Minimum Student Materials
Assigned reading materials.
VI. Minimum College Facilities
Smart classroom, overhead projection system, library
VII. Course Outline
A. Introduction
a. Science as a social undertaking
b. The relation of science to technology in the industrial revolution
c. The social impacts of science and technology (for example, impacts from
environmental degradation)
B. Science and values
a. Does a method determine the difference between science and
pseudoscience?
b. Historical and/or contemporary cases of scientific controversy
C. The interaction between science and public policy (for example, taking up the
issue of global warming as an area where science informs public policy but also
where public policy makers contest science).
D. Scientific literacy in the US: formal science and technology education, and
informal education through the media
GE-006-910, STS 201, Introduction to Science, Technology and Society
General Education Area C2
9
VIII. Instructional Methods
Lecture, problem-oriented discussion, and analytical writing.
IX. Evaluation of Outcomes
A. Student Assessment
1. Four short papers critically discussing a particular topic in relation to some of the
assigned reading materials. Each paper will require students to explore an issue,
such as the demarcation between science and pseudoscience, the meaning of the
term ‘proof’ in scientific epistemology, ways in which society influences the
development of science and technology, for example, through public policy, and the
scientific literacy of American voters and policy makers.
2. A term paper on a topic of students’ choice.
3. Participation in discussion of the course topics and readings.
B. Course Assessment
The course will be evaluated using the Department of Philosophy’s student evaluation of
teaching form (made up of 15 questions including “The goals and expectations of the
course were clearly communicated” where student response ranges from strong
agreement to strong disagreement). Other evaluative tools could also be implemented
such as a questionnaire pertaining to whether the students perceived that this course
fulfilled the objectives of an Area C2 course or a short paper in which students assess the
merits of the course as an Area C2 course.
Relationship to GE Area C2 Learning Outcome:
STS 201 focuses on science and technology as playing important roles in organizing
civilizations. It considers fundamental aspects of scientific epistemology (such as what it
is about scientific inquiry which distinguishes science from pseudoscience). The course
is also devoted to considering science and technology from the standpoint of human
values, thus enabling students to make better informed and more responsible moral
choices concerning science and technology (for example, in their evaluations of proposed
or established public policy). The course also takes up historical and current cases of
questionable, controversial, and contested science (examples of which could include
polygenism as an example of questionable science from mid-nineteenth century America,
continental drift as an example of science which was controversial in the early to midtwentieth century, and global warming as an example of science which has been recently
contested). Furthermore, the course takes up an understanding of the nature of science
from a broad historical perspective, considering how a theory (for example, astrology)
could be scientific during one period of history, but pseudoscientific during another
period of history.
GE-006-910, STS 201, Introduction to Science, Technology and Society
General Education Area C2
10
X. Relationship to GE Program Objectives
Outcome 1a: “Write and speak effectively to various audiences”
Outcome 1b: “Locate, evaluate, and responsibly use and share information employing
information and communication technologies
Outcome 1c: “Evaluate ideas, artifacts, and events and construct arguments to formulate
an opinion or conclusion”
Outcome IIb: “Apply analytical thinking to draw inferences from observations; discern
internal structures, patterns and associations; identify problems; and construct original
ideas
Outcome IIc: “Critically analyze major literary, philosophical, historical, and artistic
works and describe their aesthetic, historical, and cultural significance in society”
Outcome IId: “Explain concepts, theories, and methods pertaining to cultural, economic,
historical, political, and social analysis”
Outcome IIIa: “Understand the historical development of diverse cultures and the role
that cultural diversity plays in shaping the core institutions and practices of individuals
and societies”
Outcome IIIb: “Apply the principles, methodologies, value systems, and ethics of
human inquiry to social issues confronting local and global communities”
Outcome IVa: “Critically examine the behavior of individuals in relationship to the
social and natural environment, human sexuality, nutrition, health, stress, family, aging,
and death”
Outcome IVc: “Understand the importance of active engagement in communities for the
betterment of personal and public life”