Science, Technology, and Society

Course Code: GEC 2

Credit Unit: 3

Mr. Antonio D. Salvador Jr.

Importance in the
MODERN
WORLD
Course Description:
Science, Technology and Society (STS) is an
essential course in the General Education
curriculum for tertiary education. It was
conceptualized to develop deep appreciation and
critical understanding of the role of science and
technology in the development of people and the
society.
It deals with interactions between science and
technology in social, cultural, political, and
economic contexts that shape and are shaped by
them. (CMO No. 20, series of 2013).
It is an interdisciplinary course whereby students
are engaged in learning myriad of scientific issues
and technological developments.
We need to explore the past, present and future
of science and technology in society and the
social, cultural, political, economic and
environmental factors affecting their
development, with special focus on the
Philippines.
Course Goal:
To critically explore the interrelationships of
science and technology with other disciplines
and cultures as well as their creative processes;
and the interaction and dynamics of science,
technology, and society towards national
development in the Philippines.
Course Objectives:
At the end of this course, the student’s should be
able to:
1. Explain the creative processes of science and
technology.
2. Relate science to other disciplines and cultures.
3. Discuss the influences of past and current
scientific and technological developments on
Philippine and global society.
4. Analyze the societal influences on
developments in science and technology at the
local and global settings.
5. Evaluate the roles of science and technology in
Philippine regional and national development.
6. Examine and critique STS issues and commit to
a stand or an action.
Course Methods:

Class lectures, discussions and other in-class

activities, research project supervision,
documentary viewing, public lectures, etc.
COURSE OUTLINE & TIME
FRAME:
WEEK TOPICS
1 Class Introduction and Organization
2-3 I. General Concepts in Science,
Technology and Society.

A. Introduction to Science, Technology

and Society and its theories.
WEEK TOPICS
2-3 B. Historical antecedents: social
considerations that changed the
course of science and technology –
World and the Philippines.
B.1. Ancient Times
B.2. Medieval/ Middle Ages
B.3. Modern Time
B.4. Philippine Inventions
WEEK TOPICS
4 II. Intellectual revolutions that defined
society.
A. Copernican
B. Darwinian
C. Freudian
D. Meso-American
E. Asian
F. Middle-East
G. Africa
WEEK TOPICS
5 III. Science, Technology and the Nation
building
A. The Philippine Government S & T
Agend.
PRELIM TERM EXAM
6 B. Major development programs and
personalities in S & T in the Philippines
C. Science Education in the Philippines
D. Indigenous Science & Technology in
the Philippines
WEEK TOPICS
7-8 IV. The Human Person Flourishing
A. The Human Person Flourishing in
terms of Science & Technology
B. Technology as a Way of Revealing
C. Human Flourishing
9 V. The Good Life
A. Nichomachean Ethics and Modern
Concepts
10 VI. When Technology & Humanity Cross
A. Universal Declaration of Human Rights
B. Humans VS Robots
WEEK TOPICS
MIDTERM TERM EXAM
11 VII. Why the Future doesn't need us?
12-13 VIII. The Information Society (Gutenberg to
Social Media)
A. Information
B. The Role of Language
C. Mathematics as the Language of
Nature
D. Technological World
WEEK TOPICS
13 E. The Printing Press and Beyond
F. The World Wide Wed
14-15 IX. Biodiversity and the Healthy Society
A. The 2010 International Year of
Diversity
B. Biotechnology
C. Genetically Modified Organism

16 X. The Nano World

A. The World of Nanotechnology
WEEK TOPICS
17-18 XI. Gene Therapy/ Special Issues
A. Gene Therapy (Stem Cells)
B. Climate Change and the Energy Crisis
C. Environmental Awareness
D. Alternative Energy Resources.

FINAL EXAM TERM

BrainStorming

What is Science,
Technology and Society,
and why should anyone
want to study it?
There are many reasons why students, whether
scientists or not, should study science and
technology in their social aspects. But first, we
need some background and understanding of
the significance of science and technology in
the recent past, and their importance in the
modern world.
Scientific Revolution:
During this turbulent time in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, Galileo and other
scientists began to argue that the Earth was
not at the center of the universe, but whirled
on its own axis, and orbited around the Sun.
Geocentric – Earth centered
Heliocentric – Sun centered
 Darwin argued that humans arose as the
product of natural processes, not divinely
wrought miracles.
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
Natural Selection
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• Big Bang Theory - Physicists now believed
that, at base, the universe is probabilistic, and
that it arose as the result of a huge explosion.
• Today, the consensus among scientists,
astronomers and cosmologists is that the
Universe as we know it was created in a
massive explosion that not only created the
majority of matter, but the physical laws that
govern our ever-expanding cosmos.
• This is known as The Big Bang Theory.

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 plate tectonics - has revealed that the
continents upon which we live are not
stable, but drift across the Earth and crash
into each other.
Pangea – Super continent
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Most people would agree that science and
technology are of great importance in the
world today. Some highly developed countries,
such as Sweden and Switzerland, spend 2 or 3
per cent of their gross domestic product (i.e.
the total wealth a country produces) on
science and technology.
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For young people undergoing a university
education, it is of great valuable to study of
Science, Technology and Society. As we noted
earlier, the advent of modern technology has
transformed whole industries and has even
changed our ideas of work.
So therefore, we believe that there is a
great responsibility for all people to
have some awareness of how science
and technology work to improve our
society which benefits the human race,
rather than leading to our destruction
 PreQuiz:
How Much Do You Know?
Science is our most effective way
of understanding the natural world.
The roles and functions of science
and technology to the modern
world has no emphasis in
improving human life.
Technology as simply “applied
science”.
.

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Objectives:

•Explicate what STS is.

•Describe the theories of STS.

•Disseminate the various ST and fields to the

people in the community.
What is Technology?
Technology as a body of skills and knowledge by
which we control and modify the world.

- is the organization of knowledge for the

achievement of practical purposes or set of skills,
techniques or activities for shaping materials and
fabricating objects for practical ends.
What is Society?
Society is the system of collective, cohabitation
of groups of individuals with mutual
understanding, benefits and common goals.

The three, science, technology and society aim

at increasing our ability to comprehend and
apply the concept of scientific and
technological system.
Science is dynamic, so is technology and society.
Science, Technology and Society (STS), in another
way of saying “integrated science, technology
and society”.
Nature of STS: Introduction
We will learn the meaning of science,
technology and society and their applications.
The three areas will be treated as single
discipline.
The three areas put together will lead us in
this course, to study the quality of life.
STS is a new course, like most
interdisciplinary programs, it emerged from
confluence of a variety of discipline and
disciplinary subfields, all of which had
developed an interest – typically, during the
1960’s or 1970’s – in viewing science and
technology as socially embedded enterprises
Year Key History of STS
1960 STS key disciplinary components took
shape independent.
The Structure of Scientific Revolution
(1962), by Thomas Kuhn’s was publish.

1970 Elting E. Morison founded the STS program

at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), which served as a model.
Science, Engineering, Public Policy
Year Key History of STS
1980 Developed isolation from each other.
In 1986 – Technology assessment – The
concern with the impact of large-scale
technologies on society.

2011 STS program were counted

STS in the 21st Century
The creation of new knowledge is an
increasingly important aspect of scientific
and technological activities, and the role of
science in this knowledge creation is
important for the realization of “Science and
Technology for Society”.
The study of STS

The study of “Science, Technology and

Society” (STS) examines the roles of science
and technology in society, how science and
technology reflect social, economic and
cultural values, and the human and the ethical
implications of emerging technologies.
Yager (1992), states that STS is recognized as a
reform in science education across the world.
Emphasis has been shifted from Integrated Science
to STS by UNESCO and other stake holders in science
education. STS provides a context for science study
and thereby becomes more appropriate for all
learners (Yager 1992).
• Dr. Robert Yager is a Professor
of Science Education at The
University of Iowa. His
graduate work in plant
physiology was completed at
The University of Iowa.
• Dr. Yager's current research
focuses on Science-
Technology-Society (STS)
which affected more recent
STEM efforts. 
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National Science Teachers Association
(NSTA) defines STS as the teaching and
learning of science in the context of human
experience.
Science Technology and Society can be define
as the discipline that raises:
 a generation of citizen who understand the
nature of things in the environment;
 a generation of citizen who are aware of
changes taking place around them;
 a generation who can adjust to the changes
in the environment;
 a generation who is equipped to deal with
forces that influences the future;
 a generation who can take her future in her
own hands.
Science, Technology and Society (STS), is an
interdisciplinary field and interaction that
embodies the conditions under which the
production, distribution and utilization of
scientific knowledge and technological systems
occur; the consequences of these activities upon
different groups of people. 
Lecture Outline:
• Introduction

• The Types of Knowledge

• What is the Goal of Science

• Good Science
•The Scientific Method
What is this?
Toughest Living Thing on Earth
Toughest Living Thing on Earth
Cryptobiosis is a metabolic state of life
entered by an organism in response to
adverse environmental conditions such
as desiccation, freezing, and oxygen
deficiency.

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The Types
of
 It is also a statement about
what you accept as sufficient
“real” to allow you to take
action upon and thereby live
Knowledge is a familiarity, your life.
awareness,
or understanding of someone
or something, such as facts,
information, descriptions, or
skills, which is acquired
through experience or
education by perceiving, Examine this statement: “Dragons are
discovering, or learning. real”
What does your knowledge tell you?
• Belief is the state of mind in which a person thinks something to
be the case regardless of empirical evidence to prove that
something is the case with factual certainty.
• It is a mental representation of an attitude positively oriented
towards the likelihood of something being true.
• Jonathan Leicester suggests that belief has the purpose of
guiding action rather than indicating truth.
• In epistemology, philosophers use term “belief” to refer to
personal attitudes associated with true or false ideas and
concepts.

“For example, we never ponder whether or not the sun will rise. We
simply assume the sun will rise.”
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• A hypothesis or model is
called falsifiable if it is possible to
conceive of an experimental observation
that disproves the idea in question.
• That is, one of the possible outcomes of
the designed experiment must be an
answer, that if obtained, would disprove
the hypothesis.

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• Jan Baptista van
Helmont (1580-1644)
partially discovered the process
of photosynthesis.
• He grew a willow tree in a
weighed amount of soil.
• After five years,
he discovered that the willow tree
weighed about 74 kg more than
it did at the start.
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What is the
Goal of
Science?
• The Drake equation is a probabilistic argument
used to estimate the number of active,
communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the
Milky Way galaxy.
• Frank Donald Drake (born May 28, 1930) is an
American astronomer and astrophysicist. He is
involved in the search for extraterrestrial
intelligence and the one who developed the Drake
equation.

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What is a fact?
A fact is a statement that is true and can be
verified objectively, or proven. In other
words, a fact is true and correct no matter
what.

An opinion, however, is a statement that

holds an element of belief; it tells how
someone feels. An opinion is not always
true and cannot be proven.
What is Good Science?
 What is “Good Science”?

Disclaimer: This is a gross generalization of what science is about; science is

actually much more complex than how it is described here, but this will give you a
basic background if you need it.