BAAO COMMUNITY COLLEGE | COLLEGE OF EDUCATION | Academic year 2020-2021

MODULE FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS

MR. JOHNRICK M. NOLEAL | INSTRUCTOR

johnrick.malvarosa.noleal@gmail.com
johnrick.noleal@bicol-u.edu.ph
Module 2

CLARIFYING THE NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF SCIENCE AND

TECHNOLOGY

What this Module is about?

This module will help us identify the natures of Science and Technology, their
relationship, and their important characteristics. What are technology and science and how are
they related? These are some questions this module will answer.
Also, this module will talk about technology and science as distinguished forms of human
activity that have changed radically over the centuries from virtual isolation to increasing
interdependence.

Module 2 contains the following lessons:

Lesson 1 – Science and Technology: Their Natures and Relationship

Lesson 2 – Contemporary Science and Technology: Some Important Characteristics

What are the Objectives of this Module?

After studying the module, you should be able to:

• identify the nature of science and technology

• enumerate the characteristic outputs and root function of science and technology
• identify the characteristics and processes of science and technology
• identify the various changes of science and technology from early times to modern
society.
• Determine the important characteristics of contemporary science and technology.

Test your Knowledge

Let us see how much you already know about the topics which we are going to discuss in
the module.

1. What are the four meanings of science and the four meanings of technology?
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2. What are the characteristic outputs of science and technology?
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3. What is the root function of science? What is the root function of technology?
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4. What are the developments in science and technology past and present?
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5. Enumerate important characteristics of contemporary science and technology.
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Lesson 1

Science and Technology: Their Natures and Relationships

In general, students cannot distinguish between the roles of science and technology.
Helping them to do is implied by this module. This lack of distinction between science and
technology is further confused by students positive perceptions of science, as when they associate
this with medical research and use the common phrase “scientific progress”. In contrast, their
perception of technology is often with regard to environmental and technological problems.
Students as well as many adults and teachers of science indicate a belief that science
influences technology. This belief is captured by the common definition that “technology is
applied science”.
In this lesson, we will try to eliminate various misconceptions of science and technology.
You will learn about the nature of science and technology. You will be helped to determine
relationships between science and technology and how they influence each other. You will also
be presented with the changes in science and technologies over the centuries.

Activity 2.1
Study the article and illustrations below. Answer the questions that follow.

A. Article

Technology Draws on Science and Contributions to It

Technology grew out of personal experience of things and the techniques for
manipulating them. Accumulated practical knowledge is the contribution of technology. This
comes from scientific understanding of the principles that underlies how things behave.

B. Illustration (See next page)

Write your observations regarding the said article and illustrations:

1. What can you say about the history of the nature of science and technology?
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2. What do you think is the relationship between science and technology?
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3. Based on the illustration, what are some of the changes made by science and
technology?
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Feedback
Did you notice what the previous activity tried to imply? The activity was trying to get
your idea about how science and technology influence each other from the past to the present. It
was also intended for you to analyze how science and technology affects the society. It
presented some of the scientific and technological contributions from the past to present.

Study

The Nature of Science and Technology

The terms technology and science are used commonly in everyday discourse and
writing. People who use this terms take it for granted that they share unambiguous respective
meanings. If, however, the questions “what is technology? And what is science?” are posed po
students or ordinary citizens, the divergence in answers is sometimes astonishing. Technology
and science are deceptive terms, each of which cloaks multiple unrecognized meanings.

Reflect
Technology really changes society. How does technology affect everyday life?
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Activity 2.2
1. Enumerate the four definition of technology.
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2. Can you give examples of technology as technics? As a technology? AS a form of human
cultural activity? As a total societal enterprise?
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Study
Four Meanings of Technology
Technology as Technics. Technology will sometimes be used to mean and refer to material
products of human making or fabrication Technics (Lewis Mumford's term) are the material
artifacts (to use an anthropological term) or "hardware" (to use an engineering term produced by
a person, group or society. There are various subcategories of technics, including tools, devices,
machines, implements, instruments, and utensils. Thus, computers, bicycles, contact lenses. and
axes fall within the general category of technics.
 Technology as a Technology. Technology here refers to a complex of knowledge, methods,
materials, and, if applicable, constituent parts used in making a certain kind of technic.
Technology in this sense can be used in either the singular or plural to refer either to a technology
or to two or more technologies. Many technologies are involved in the manufacture of an
automobile, synch as brake technology, carburetor technology, engine technology and
transmission technology.
Technology as a form of Human Cultural Activity. Technology will often be used to refer to a
distinctive form or kind of human cultural activity. In this sense, technology is a type of endeavor.
Craft people and machinists as well as professional engineers are practitioners of respective
technologies.
Technology as a Total Societal Enterprise. “The landing of Apollo XI' on the moon in 1969
was a great tribute to American technology". Here, technology refers to the total societal
enterprise of technology that is, the complex of knowledge, people, skills, organizations, facilities,
technics, physical resources, methods and technologies that taken together and in relationship to
one another are devoted to the research, development, production, and operation of technics.

REFLECT
What are the four definitions of technology?
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STUDY
Four Meanings of Science
Four meanings of science can be distinguished, three of which are analogous to the
meanings of technology.

Science as Knowledge. Here, science refers to the organized, well-founded body of knowledge
of natural phenomena. Observation of natural phenomena includes not only those that exist or
occur spontaneously in nature but also those that exist because of human contrivance.

Science as a Field of Systematic Inquiry into Nature. In “physics is the most basic science,”
science refers to a particular field or domain of systematic inquiry in which knowledge is sought.

Science as a form of Human Cultural Activity. Science sometimes refers to a distinctive form or
kind of human cultural activity, one practiced by people called scientists.

Science as a Total Societal Enterprise. This refers to science as the complex of knowledge, people,
skills, organizations, facilities, technics, physical resources, methods and technologies that taken
together or in relationship to one another are devoted to the study and understanding of the
natural world.
REFLECT
From the four definitions of science, how can you simplify the definition of science?
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ACTIVITY 2.3
1. What are the four definitions of science?
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2. How can you now differentiate technology from science?
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STUDY
Technology and Science as Terms of Human Activity
Let us now consider in greater detail the specific natures of technology and science as
distinctive kinds of human activity.

One way of characterizing technology and science systematically depends on the fact that
many conventional types of human activity can be analyzed in terms of five key aspects or
components: 1) inputs, 2) outputs, 3) functions 4) kinds of human practitioners, and 5) processes.
Many traditional kinds of human activity, such as medicine, art, and education, can be looked at
as involving the transformation or conversion of inputs into outputs to serve one or more
functions.
Technology and science are two such types of activity. Each can be characterized by
describing its characteristic inputs, outputs, functions and so on. Technology and science may
thus be differentiated or related by looking at differences and similarities in and relationships
between their various aspects.

REFLECT
Technology and Science really influence various forms of human activities. If you consider
the activities you usually do or line of work you have, how do you apply science and technology
according to the five key aspects or components?
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ACTIVITY 2.4
1. What are the five aspects or components characterizing science and technology? Give an
illustration where we can analyze the use of the five aspects of science and technology
for human activity.
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STUDY
Characteristic Output of Technology and Science.
There are two kinds of characteristic outputs of technological activity: technics and
technic-related intellectual constructs. The latter term refers to various kinds of mental creations
(e.g. plans and procedures) that pertain to the design, production, use or maintenance of
technics. Examples of technic-related intellectual products would include a program for the
computerized operation of a rapid-transit system or a system for controlling the quality of
manufactured goods.
As for science, its characteristic output or end result is theory-based, that is, of the
material world itself, including humans and their individual and social activities and behavior.

ACTIVITY 2.5
1. What are the characteristic outputs of technology?
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2. What are the characteristic outputs of science?
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STUDY
Root Functions of Technology and Science.
Technology arose as a perennial form of human activity. Unaided by technics, most
human capacities are quite limited. These limits render the human vulnerable to harm from
various aspects of its environment. Humans attempt through technology to decrease that
vulnerability by extending their capacities. Technology is an attempt to compensate for a central
aspect of the human condition; that is human finitude. Humans are not omnipotent, immortal or
omnipresent.

Let us say then that the root function or purpose of technology as an activity is to expand
the realm of practical human possibility.
 It is difficult to ascertain what gave rise to the activity of science. There are various
competing explanations. Aristotle offers a philosophical account: "All men by nature desire to
know". The human being is an innately curious creature. This primal propensity manifests itself
in marvel at the world and attempts to understand it intellectually.
A materialist conjecture sees the origin of science as eventually the same as that of
technology. Like the latter, science is an attempt to compensate for an aspect of human finitude.
Well-grounded scientific knowledge of the forces and phenomena of the natural world affords
new power to its possessors and gives them an advantage over those who lack it.
Still, other scholars posit a political explanation. For them, the rise of the "new critical
spirit into man's attitude toward the world of nature “is something they see as marking the
emergence of science. Science is a counterpart to and offshoot of the contemporary development
of the practice of free debate and open discussion in the context of politics and law.
Let us say then that the root function of science is attaining an enhanced understanding
of the natural world. Putting these ideas together, we conclude that:
Technology is that form of human activity that is devoted to the production of technics -
or technic-related intellectual products – and whose root function is to expand the realm of
practical possibility.
Science is that form of human activity which is devoted to the production of theory-related
knowledge of natural phenomena and whose root function is to attain an enhanced
understanding of nature.

ACTIVITY 2.6
1. The root function of technology is to expand the realm of practical human possibility? Is
there any negative impact of this function of technology? Elaborate your answer.
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2. How will you justify the following: “All men by nature desire to know."
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STUDY
Characteristic Processes of Technology and Science.
Before addressing the question of the relationship between technology and science, let
us look at the processes in which the activities of technology and science typically unfold.
Technology processes always encompass at least the following:
1. Identification of specific need or opportunity to be met, satisfied, or exploited by means
of a projected technic.
2. A design phase;
3. A production phase;
4. A use phase.
 In contrast, the processes of science have at least the following elements or phases:
1. Identification of an aspect or phenomena of nature of interest to the practitioner;
2. Formulation of some sort of "this-worldly" intellectual - a hypothesis or theory that does
not simply attribute the phenomena to divine intercession - to explain the aspect or
phenomena;
3. Application of the construct to the aspect or phenomena;
4. Assessment of the adequacy of fit of the construct to the phenomena;
5. Adoption or rejection of the explanation or knowledge in light of the application and
assessment.

ACTIVITY 2.7
1. What are the processes used in technology?
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2. What are the characteristic processes / phases used in science?
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STUDY
The Relationship of Technology and Science
With these contrasting characterizations in mind, we now turn to the second major
question of this chapter: "How are technology and science related?" The essential point here is
that the relationship between technology and science has a history. The central thesis of this
section is that this relationship has evolved from one of virtual isolation and mutual
independence to one of intimate association and mutually beneficial interdependence.

STUDY
Technology and Modern Technology
It is remarkable how many people use the word technology to refer only to items or
ensembles of exclusively modern technics. In this way, they succumb to and inadvertently
foster the misguided view that human history is divided into pre-technological and
technological epochs. One would like to believe that the tendency to identify technology with
modern technology is merely a linguistic convenience intended to underscore the qualitative
uniqueness of modern technology. Modern technology evolved gradually out of and is deeply
indebted to pre-modern technology

ACTIVITY 2.8
What is the difference between technology and modern technology?
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STUDY
Science and Modern Science
The story is much the same as science. The foregoing remarks about the output, root
function, and processes of science make it clear that scientific activity existed in Western society
long before the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the age of the Scientific Revolution and the
dawn of modern science. In fact, scientific activity dates back to the ancient Greeks of the sixth
century B.C. A number of Greek philosophers attempted to explain the curious dual phenomena
of flux and change in their everyday experience of the natural world set against the backdrop of
a cosmos that exhibited regularity and order. Regularity was due to this underlying substantial
unity; while change derived from the fact that the phenomena of everyday life were comprised
of different combinations or changing modes or forms of these primary elements of the universe.
Each speculator presumably tried to test his theory by seeing how much of this curious dual
earthly phenomena of regularity and change it could plausibly account for. This was the birth of
science as an activity.

REFLECT
1. What is Modern Science?
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2. What do you think are the characteristics of Modern Science?
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STUDY
History of the Relationship
With these clarifications in mind, let us now turn briefly to the evolving historical
relationship of technology and science.

Antiquity. In antiquity, science rarely played a role in technological activity. One possible
exception is the case of the celebrated Greek mathematician and scientist, Archimedes. Among
his remarkable achievements, Archimedes offered a sophisticated proof for "law of the lever". In
accordance with this principle, a mathematically calculable weightlifting leverage can be gained
by using a proportionally longer lever. Archimedes allegedly believed that engineering was
ignoble in contrast to mathematics and theoretical science. However, he is said to have heeded
the call of his king to help defend his native city by using his knowledge of physics to design
catapults. With this, the people tried in vain to repel a Roman invasion in 212 B.C.
This possible exception notwithstanding, the interplay of technology and science in antiquity was
virtually non-existent.
ACTIVITY 2.9
Discuss briefly the influence of science and technology during antiquity.
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STUDY
From Antiquity through the Renaissance. From antiquity to the seventeenth century, the
trajectories of technology and science rarely intersected. When they did, the arrow of influence
usually pointed from technology to science. Technological innovation contributed to the
development of a prosperous medieval economy capable of supporting universities and
theoretical scientific instruments.
Leonardo da Vinci is one of the exceedingly rare cases prior to the seventeenth century.
His endeavors in science may have influenced technological practice. Leonardo pursued all kinds
of activities -anatomy, fluid mechanics, optics, etc.
Francis Bacon grew up in an environment in which a number of impressive technological
advances had already been made. Bacon observed that most technological and industrial activity
were still of the low-powered artisanal type based on trial and error. Although technology and
science remained in a state of manual isolation during his lifetime, Bacon anticipated a time when
science would become an important factor in much technological progress.

REFLECT
What are some technological advances from antiquity through the renaissance?
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STUDY

Technology and Science from the Seventeenth to the Early Nineteenth centuries.
When the perennial relationship of virtual mutual independence first changed in
earnest, it was not science that began to influence developments in technology but vice versa.
Technology influenced the practices of the seventeenth century in the following ways:

1. Scientific Instruments. The epochal Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century

owed a good deal to several recent and not-so-recent technics. The new Science of
Newtonian mechanics, which studied relationships between space, time, force and
motion, needed a device to measure time intervals accurately.

2. A New World View for Science. Technological developments from the late thirteenth
through the sixteenth centuries exercised a profound effect on science on a completely
different level. The approach of regarding natural phenomena as mechanics became
 integral to science for two centuries, and bore rich fruit. For example, approaching the
human body as a complicated machine with sub-mechanics focused attention on
determining the ways in which the individual parts operate. The notion of the heart as a
force pump is an example of such an approach, one which remains useful even today.

3. Influence on the Research Agenda of Science. Technology influenced the research topics
selected for study in early modern science. One of the disciples of the mechanistic
philosophy was the physicist and chemist Robert Boyle.

4. Scientific Instruments and Scientific Revolutions. In the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries, technology in the form of instruments and devices continued to
influence the course of science.

5. Contribution of Science to Technology in the Eighteenth Century. The contribution of

science to technological progress in the eighteenth century was generally modest. The
most notable exception over which disagreement persists is the important case of the
steam engine. The steam engine originated as an attempt to solve the pressing practical
problem of draining water from tin and coal mines.

ACTIVITY 2.10
1. Describe technology and science from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries
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2. What are the five sign contributions or influences of science and technology during the
seventeenth and up to the nineteenth century?
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LESSON 2

Contemporary Science and Technology: Some Important Characteristics

Science and Technology have exercised a broad and deep influence on contemporary
Western society. In this lesson you will venture on an account of the influence of science and
technology on twentieth century Western society. The purpose of this lesson is to discuss some
notable distinguishing features of science and technology in this century. Some of these features
shed light on why science and technology have been and remain vital factors in twentieth century
social change.

After studying this lesson, you will be able to:

o Identify some important characteristics of contemporary science and technology.
o Differentiate each notable feature from each other.
o Identify the products of contemporary science and technology.
o Compare the settings of science and technology from the past to the present.
o Identify the various resources of science and technology.

ACTIVITY 1.1
Study the illustrations below. Based on the illustrations, answer the questions that follow.

REFLECT
Write your answers below.
1. How will you compare the products of science and technology form the past to the
present?
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2. Differentiate the changes of settings of science and technology from the earlier times to
the present.
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3. What are some resources needed for science and technology?
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FEEDBACK
From the activity you just did, you gave some important characteristic of science and
technology. You also presented some major changes in the features of science and technology
from the past to the present.

STUDY
Important Characteristics of Contemporary Science and Technology. We will discuss
six distinctive categories of contemporary science and technology. We will begin with an
important feature of the activities covered by the expressions contemporary science and
contemporary technology. Then we will discuss distinctive characteristics having to do with four
dimensions of scientific and technological activities, that is, their products, settings, resources,
and practitioners. Finally, we will describe several important distinctive trends in contemporary
science and technology viewed as total social enterprises.
Polymorphism
Contemporary technological activity is polymorphous in character. It unfolds in many
forms. These include design of a particular technic by an independent inventor; quantitative
analysis by an investigator to determine the best or acceptable way of setting the parameters
affecting the operation of a particular technical or sociotechnical system (e.g. a nationwide
telecommunication network); and scientific research into the structure and properties of natural
or synthetic materials in order to serve a particular technological purpose.
This polymorphism is itself an important characteristic of contemporary technology. New
kinds of practices continue to be added to the arsenal of contemporary technology - computer
integrated manufacturing, for example. However, contemporary technology continues to include
kinds of practices characteristic of earlier eras.
The story is much the same for contemporary science. The expression contemporary
science conjures images of theory, controlled experiment, and reduction of findings to
mathematical form.

REFLECT
Based on the study, what is polymorphism as one of the important characteristics of
science and technology?
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STUDY

The Products of Contemporary Science and Technology

The products or outputs of contemporary science and technology exhibit a number of
distinctive features characteristic of their respective forms of activity.
a) Technology
1. Complexity - Many contemporary technics are astonishingly complex in structure or
operation. Their parts are highly differentiated in nature and function, and require
extraordinary integration. The constraints under which they operate often interact,
and the operation of such technics is often subject to hierarchically ordered levels of
control.

2. System - Embeddedness. Many contemporary technics are embedded in complex

socio-technical support systems on which they depend for their manufacture, use, or
maintenance. Dependence on such systems is scarcely unique to contemporary
technics.

3. Production Specialization and Incomprehensibility. A third feature of contemporary

technics pertains to their specialized character. While the production of technics has
 long been a specialized activity, the degree of specialization involved in the
production of contemporary technics is unprecedented.

4. Formalized Technical Procedures. There are two categories of products of

technological activity: technics and technic-related intellectual constructs. In
describing what is most characteristics of contemporary technology, we have focused
on technics. However, increasing the output of contemporary technological activity
consists not of technics per se, but of a distinctive kind of technic – related intellectual
product: formalized technical procedures. Formalized technical procedures are
devised for a variety of purposes, including ones related to the design, production,
operation, and maintenance of many contemporary technics and technical systems.

5. Sociotechnical Systems Analysis. In general, systems analysis is the quantitative

examination of a particular system of interest (e.g., a production system or an
international trade system) to determine how it behaves or would behave under
certain conditions or assumptions.

REFLECT
Based on your own observation, how complicated is technology today?
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ACTIVITY 1.2
1. What are the five (5) distinctive features of technology?
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2. Give some examples of technology as a sociotechnical system.
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b) Science
1. Abstract and Abstruse Nature. The products - or outputs of contemporary science
are distinctive in at least three aspects. They often concern phenomena remote
from everyday experience (e.g., microorganisms, fossils, nuclei) and some. times
involve concepts that are profoundly counterintuitive (the relativity of space and
time) or unintelligible (Black Holes in the universe) to all but the initiated.

2. Theory - Dependence. Some scholars contend that scientific knowledge, even that
gleaned directly from observation, is implicitly if not explicitly theory-related.
 Even seemingly neutral descriptions of natural phenomena embody theoretical
presuppositions. Such descriptions are couched in terms that presuppose that
certain kinds of phenomena are existing entities, while others are merely
descriptive properties of such entities.

3. Growth of Scientific Knowledge. One way of gauging the growth of scientific

knowledge is by counting the number of scientific journals that exist at various
times.

REFLECT
What are the characteristics of science?
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STUDY:

Settings
A third set of characteristic features of contemporary science and technology involves
dominant settings. Pre-twentieth century scientific and technological activities took place in home
attics, basements, and garages, as well as in small shops. However, the housing of scientific
research in certain European universities dates from the Middle Ages, while in both Europe and
the United States, modest university science laboratories grew considerably in number in the
nineteenth century.

ACTIVITY 1.3
1. Give examples of dominant settings for scientific and technological activities.
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STUDY

Resources
Many of the achievements of contemporary science and technology would not have come
about without the resources at the disposal of their practitioners.

Two kinds of Resources

Input Resources - Input resources are supplies of various sorts introduced into scientific or
technological contexts to enable or facilitate certain endeavors. Input resources include.

• Materials - Material inputs to technological activity consist largely of raw materials that
had undergone relatively simple preparatory processes. Long before the modern era,
 preparatory processes for technological input materials were sometimes fairly
complicated

• Natural Phenomena - Science in the contemporary era is also characterized by great

increases in inputs of various sorts. Thanks to the incessant development of myriad new
or improved technics - including microscope, computers, and various kinds of imaging
machines - the domain of natural phenomena accessible to scientific exploration is
constantly expanding.

• Money. One indispensable input of most contemporary science and technology is money
- in increasingly large amounts. Expensive technology, numerous highly salaried workers,
and heavy institutional overhead costs are primary contributors to the steep price of much
contemporary scientific research.

ACTIVITY 1.4
1. What are input resources?
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2. Enumerate the various input resources that facilitate scientific and technological
endeavors.
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STUDY:
Transformative Resources - Transformative resources are those used in converting scientific
inputs and technological activities into their respective outputs or products. Transformative
resources can be ordered into two kinds: first order - those with which inputs are transformed,
second order - those with which first order resources are brought to bear on inputs.
• First - Order Resources - Perennial kinds of first-order transformative resources include
technics and technical systems, mathematical techniques, labor power, materials
alteration processes, and energy forms. These resources have grown enormously in
number and power in the twentieth century.
• Second - Order Resources. The second-order resources of science and technology can be
divided into two kinds: methods and knowledge. In general, technological knowledge has
several bases or sources. It is based on direct observations of and experience with the ways
in which materials and power sources behave under various circumstances. Technological
knowledge is based on systematic activity, scientific understanding, and intuitive insight
or imagination as to what would be an appropriate way of proceeding with a given
technological task.
REFLECT
What do you think is the difference between first-order resources and second-order
resources?
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ACTIVITY 1.5
1. What are the two kinds of resources?
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2. Give examples of first-order resources? Second-order resources?
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STUDY

Practitioners
The practitioner can also be generated as a kind of transformative resource for science and
technology. There are several noteworthy respects in which the practitioner dimension of
contemporary scientific and technological activity is distinctive.
a) Number and Density. The number of practitioners of technology and science today is
enormous relative to previous centuries. The number of engineers and scientists relative
to population size is also unprecedentedly large.
b) Collaboration and Teams. Contemporary scientific and technological activity is
increasingly pursued on a collaborative or team basis. The solitary practitioner carrying
out an independent investigation has been increasingly superseded by the team of
scientists working on an experiment, team of engineers working on a project, or mixed
team of scientists, engineers, and technicians working on either a scientific experiment or
a research and development project.
c) Management Skills. One consequence of this development is that, in the twentieth
century, being an effective scientist or engineer is more likely to require more
management skills than ever before; scientists and engineers will need to have fund-
raising, interpersonal and organizational skills.
d) individual Practitioner Reaffirmed. Individual practitioners are sometimes the key
sources of ideas for inventions, innovations, or experiments. The individual practitioners
may play a crucial role in fund raising, in the design of prototypes or experimental
apparatus, in marketing, or in theoretical breakthrough.
 e) Training and Specialization. The situation of the contemporary technical practitioner is
also historically unprecedented in regard to the duration of formal preparatory study and
to the degree of specialization within the general fields of engineering and science.

REFLECT
What are the distinctive features of the practitioner?
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STUDY

Symbiotic Interdependence.
Finally, contemporary science and technology continue to exhibit an unmistakable trend
toward increasing symbiotic interdependence. Stripped of their contributions to each other in this
century, each would be virtually unrecognizable and both would be much less effective. Technics
and related intellectual constructs play an ever more influential role in the process of acquiring
scientific knowledge. This interactive feedback relationship is sufficiently widespread to qualify
as an important distinguishing characteristic of contemporary science and technology.

REFLECT
Discuss briefly what symbiotic interdependence is.
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SUMMARY
What we studied in the two lessons are mainly about the nature and relationship of
science and technology, and some important characteristics of contemporary science and
technology. You learned the four definitions of science and technology, and grasped information
regarding the outputs, processes and root functions of science and technology. In addition, we
discussed the relationship between science and technology, and how each influences the other.
We also presented development or changes in society past and present because of science and
technology.
In Lesson 2, you learned the important features of contemporary science and technology.
Distinctive features such as polymorphism, products of science and technology, settings,
practitioners, and symbiotic interdependence were discussed.
APPLY WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED
After finishing the lesson, answer the following questions.
1. Identify the four meanings of science and four meanings of science and technology.
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2. Enumerate the characteristic outputs of science and technology. What are the root
functions of each?
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3. Identify the characteristic processes of science and technology.
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4. Identify the various influences or contributions of science and technology.
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5. Identify the important features or characteristics of contemporary science and
technology.
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CONGRATULATIONS!
You have just finished studying lessons 1 and 2 in this module. You may now proceed to
the next lesson which features the basic concepts, frameworks, and theories pertinent to
understanding science and technology in society.