Introduction to Science, Tech, & Society

Lesson 1: Introduction to Science, Technology, and Society

• Science involves pursuing and applying knowledge of the natural and social world using systematic methodology and evidence.
• Science involves more than simply gaining knowledge; it is systematic and organized inquiry into the natural world and its phenomena, and gaining a deeper and useful understanding of the world.
• Science is intellectual activity by humans to discover information about the natural world and organize it into meaningful patterns.
• The primary aim of science is to collect data, and its ultimate purpose is to discern the order between facts.
• Technology originates from the Greek words "tekhnē" (art, craft) and "-logia" (systematic treatment), evolving into the English term "technology."
• Technology involves a rational process of creating means to order and transform matter, energy, and information to realize valued ends.
• Technology is the set of means (tools, devices, systems, methods, procedures) created by technological processes.
• Technology is the knowledge that makes the technological process possible, including facts and procedures to order and manipulate matter, energy, and information.
• Technology is a subject of related technological objects and knowledge.
• Technology is a system consisting of the technological process, objects, knowledge, developers, users, and the worldview that has emerged from it, referred to as the technological system.

Society

• Society is a group of people involved with each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same territory.
• Members of a society may be from different ethnic groups and are subject to the same political authority and cultural expectations.
• Society is an economic, social, or industrial infrastructure made up of a varied collection of individuals and may also refer to an organized voluntary association of people for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, or patriotic purposes.
• Gerhard Lenski (1924-2015) was an American sociologist known for his contributions to the sociology of religion, social inequality, and ecological-evolutionary social theory.
• Lenski defined societies in terms of their technological sophistication.
• Societies with limited technology are more vulnerable to environmental fluctuations.
• Industrialized societies have more control over their surroundings and develop different cultural features.

Sociocultural Change and Types of Societies

• Sociocultural change includes innovation (adding new elements like technologies, social practices, or beliefs) and extinction (elimination of elements).
• Hunter-gatherer societies are the most dependent on the environment.
• Pastoral societies rely on the domestication of animals.
• Horticultural societies grow and cultivate plants.
• Agricultural societies experienced an explosion of new technology, making farming possible.
• Feudal societies contained a strict hierarchical system of power.
• Industrial societies show a dramatic rise in technological invention.
• Information societies are based on the production of information and services.

Science, Technology, and Society (STS)

• STS is a field interested in the nature of science and its place in society.
• STS is about the interplay between science, technology, and society, where each element affects the others.
• Understanding how science molds and impacts society is essential.
• Policies lacking evidence may cost and do more damage than benefits.

Lesson 2: Evidence of S&T During Prehistoric Times

• Man's achievements in science can be categorized into discovery and invention.
• Writing has only existed for about 5,000 years, making prehistory difficult to study.
• Archaeologists dig at sites, use various methods to date and analyze found objects, while anthropologists study culture by examining artifacts.
• Hominids were early proto-humans known for sharpening objects with silicon rocks and mastering their hands and fingers.
• A hominid is a group consisting of all modern and extinct Great Apes, including modern humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and all immediate ancestors.
• A hominin is a group including modern humans and all of our extinct bipedal ancestors (members of genera Homo, Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and Ardipithecus).

Australopithecus afarensis and africanus

• Australopithecus afarensis lived 3.85-2.95 million years ago and was named in 1978, after being discovered in Hadar, Ethiopia, and Laetoli, Tanzania.
• Australopithecus afarensis had both ape and human characteristics, ape-like face, small brain, long and strong arms, small canine teeth, stood on two legs and walked upright and had a plant-based diet
• Taung child (1924) discovered that early fossil humans occurred in Africa and described by Prof. Raymond Dart who named it Au. africanus
• Australopithecus africanus is anatomically similar to Au. afarensis, possessing a rounder cranium (bigger brain), small teeth, long arms, strongly sloping face, pronounced jaw, walked bipedally, and adapted to climbing.

Homo Habilis, Rudolfensis, and Erectus

• Homo habilis lived 2.4-1.4 million years ago and was nicknamed "handyman” for their ability to carve tools.
• Homo habilis were one of the earliest members of the genus Homo with a slightly bigger braincase, smaller face and teeth,, ape-like features, flexible versatile diet of tough leaves, woody plants, and some animal tissues.
• Homo rudolfensis lived 1.9-1 million years ago and was discovered in Koobi Fora in Lake Turkana basin, Kenya
• The critical feature of Homo rudolfensis is that the braincase size has 775 cubic centimeters.
• Homo rudolfensis differs because of its larger braincase, longer face, and larger molar and premolar teeth.
• Homo erectus lived 1.89 mya- 110,000 years ago, the early African Homo erectus fossils are called (Homo ergaster) with the oldest known early humans to possess modern human-like body proportions.
• Homo erectus also had relatively elongated legs, shorter arms compared to torso, ate meat and honey and underground tubers.

Homo heidelbergensis and sapiens

• Homo heidelbergensis lived 700,000-200,000 years ago and was known for a very large browridge, larger braincase, and flatter face.
• Homo heidelbergensis first lived in colder climates, used fire and wooden spears, build new shelters out of wood and rock.
• Homo neanderthalensis lived 400,000-40,000 years ago, the closest extinct human relative and has a large middle part of face
• Homo neanderthalensis had bodies that were shorter and stockier to adapt to colder environments and brains that were just as large as ours and often larger.
• Homo sapiens lived 300,000 years ago to present, and is the species that you and all other living human beings belong to - evolved in Africa, gathered and hunted food and evolved behaviors that helped them respond to challenges of survival in unstable environments

Spreading Around the World and Three-Age System

• Homo erectus was the first hominid to migrate out of Africa, followed by Homo sapiens around 100,000 years ago.
• Neanderthals tried to explain/control their world, developed religious beliefs and rituals, and fashioned stone blades/scrapers.
• Cro-Magnons migrated from North Africa to Europe and Asia, used specialized tools/hunting strategies, spoke language, and thrived more compared to Neanderthals.

Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic Periods

• Tools gradually evolved from single to all-purpose tools to specialized tools for specific functions.
• In the Paleolithic Period, also known as the "Old Stone Age" where people lived in caves/huts were hunter-gatherers, used basic stone/bone tools, crude stone axes, for hunting wild animals.
• In the Paleolithic Period, people cooked prey (mammoths, bisons, etc.), controlled fire, ate berries, and were the first to leave art and small figures behind.
• Paleolithic tools used flint and chert for use as cutting tools blades and weapons.
• Paleolithic tools also used basalt and sandstone as ground stone tools tools as well as wood, bone, shell, and antlers.
• The Mesolithic Period ("Middle Stone Age") had climatic instability, Gradual warming abruptly switching, and a1,200 yrs of very cold dry weather.
• The gradual shift in climate during the Mesolithic Period resulted in Megafauna extinction and growth of forests.
• Mesolithic Toolkits included points- hafted on shafts to make spears as well as smaller points- smaller shafts to make darts, arrows and other projectile weapons.
• Mesolithic tools also used needles, thread, skin clothing, harpoon, spear thrower, special fishing equipment.
• During the Neolithic Period (“New Stone Age"), Early standing stones at Carnac on the Brittany coast were raised.
• The Neolithic Period was characterized by megalithic architecture, agricultural practices, polished stone tools, herding societies, bronze melting, adoption of agriculture and pottery
• The biggest effect on technology during the Neolithic Period, seems to stem from the Economic requirements of supporting a larger population

Neolithic crops and Bronze Age

• Alternative paths toward FOOD production includes Gathering to cereal horticulture (gardening) to plow agriculture and From hunting to herding and pastoral nomadism
• Neolithic crops included Southwest Asia:(Several wheats,Barleys Rye Peas Lentils and Flax) and Africa (millet and sorghum)
• The development of agriculture radically changed how people lived, which shifted to farming is referred to as the Neolithic Revolution.
• During the Bronze Age (3,300 BCE- 1,200 BCE) Stone was gradually replaced by bronze beginning Mining and metallurgy through crude stone tools were still used
• Bronze was made by melting tin and and copper and poured into moulds to create useful items.
• During the Bronze Age Rise of states or kingdoms occurred where large-scale societies were joined under a central government, with inventions stemming from architecture and art as well as invention of potter's wheel and textiles

Iron Age and Ancient Civilizations

• During the Iron Age (1,200 ВСЕ- 600 BCE) Iron. became the Dominant tool-making material, which sporadic when steel was learned how to make, (a much better metal) by “heating iron with carbon”
• The first ancient civilizations include Egypt (Nile Valley), Mesopotamia (Tigris-Euphrates Valley), Harappan (Indus Valley, and China (Huang Ho Valley).
• Cities are the central feature of a civilization and they arose from farming settlements
• Ancient cities were built near rivers, surrounded by high walls for protection, had palaces, temples, long roads, and were centers of trade and culture.
• Features of Organized Central Government included overseeing irrigation projects, issuing laws, collecting taxes, and organizing defense.
• Features of Institutionalized Religion included gods controlled natural forces that required temples, sacrifices, and full-time priests
• Features of Specialization included, increase leads people to specialize in certain jobs, artisans, metalworkers, merchants and more.

Features of Social Classes Public Works, and Writing System

• Features in social classes were people ranked according to task or role as (priests, nobles, wealthy, merchants, artisans, peasants and slaves, .
• Features of public Works encompassed Bridges, Road Systems, Irrigation Systems and protective walls, to Keep people busy during periods of agricultural inactivity or warring.
• Originating as religious records or offerings, ancient writing systems progressed from pictograms to abstract ideas, sounds, and medical texts.
• Scribes who were specially trained and educated to read and write used cuneiform the first writing system. Technologies found was in Transportation, weaponry, Armor and conservation of life.

Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Indus Valley

• Ancient Egypt was located at floodplains of the Nile River,
• Egyptian agriculture focused on cereal crops (Wheat and Barley), sheep was the primary source of meat, houses were normally built mud bricks .
• Pharaohs, the monarchs of Ancient Egypt believed to become god in afterlife built temples and massive pyramid tombs - largest pyramid is built by Pharaoh Khufu by 2550 BC, plus Art and methods of embalming as well as.
• During Ancient Mesopotamia, mass produced bricks and pottery, were produced by the Sumerians, Akkadians, Gutians, Babylonians, Hittites, Assyrians and Persians.
• During the Indus Valley Civilization (located Pakistan and Northwest India,) evidence was highly developed with complex well-made houses, underground sewage and irrigation systems.
• The two cities, ruined by the harappa and Mohenjo Daro civilization, was the invention of the Pashupati Seal, Ornamental Buttons Ivory Rulers Terracotta Distillation Apparatus Standardized Weights

Ancient China and Ancient Rome

• The Ancient China civilization was located at Yellow River valley that had Henan province, prehistoric villages/communities with small dynasty.
• Famous men like Conficiuous came from the Dynasty which lead to development of writing, metallurgy architecture and religion.
• The Ancient Roman were the twin sons of Mars, Romulus and Remus civilization to rule the empire.
• Rome's economy was based agriculture (grains, olives, grapes, etc) as well as grain imports from Egypt and North Africa, that was built of 7 hills.
• Inventions from the Roman Empire: (Arches Newspaper Concrete Aqueducts and Roman Numerals)

Ancient Greece

• Concentrated in what is today, Greece and along western coast of Turkey,.
• Ancient Greek colonists established cities all around the Mediterranean and along the coast of the Black Sea, also called a landscape of mountains and sea. Land useful for farming is found in valley bottoms, by steep slopes, or by small islands.
• Archaic Greece (700-480 BC) saw advances in art, poetry and technology that led to the polis, city-state to be invented.

Renaissance, Columbian exchange of goods

• The origin of science is ascribed to Greek natural philosophers was from what they and used to borrowed from, and built upon, the works of Mesopotamians and Egyptians.
• The most Significant Factors of the rise of SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY stemmed from Greece was an open society with enjoyed freedom of thought of intellectual freedom in.
• From the period was Idea to demonstration- mathematics based of empiricism.
• Vast improvement of agricultural technology allowed society to grow more food. October- prep for planting winter crops, November- salting of meat for winter, Early Spring- planting of spring.
• Crops (oats, barley, peas, and beans, Early summer- weed fields, shear sheep, spin wools