Science, Technology, and Society

• These notes deal with the interactions between science, technology, and social, cultural, political, and economic contexts.

Course Goals

• To confront the realities brought about by science and technology in society.
• These realities affect personal, public, and global aspects of human development.
• To instill reflective knowledge for ethical decision-making amid scientific and technological advancements.
• Mandatory topics include climate change and environmental awareness.
• To gain sufficient knowledge of the impacts of science and technology, especially in Philippine society.
• The objective is to explain how science and technology affect society, the environment, and nation-building.
• To analyze the human condition and express philosophical ramifications.
• To define and demonstrate the impact of social media on personal life and Philippine society.
• To creatively present the importance and contributions of science and technology to society.
• To examine shared concerns for the good life and develop innovative solutions to contemporary issues guided by ethical standards.
• To illustrate how social media and the information age impact life and understanding of climate change.
• The aim is to imbibe the importance of science and technology in preserving the environment and developing the Filipino nation.

Nature and Relationships of Science, Technology, and Society

• The considerable contribution and effects of science and technology on society are traceable from ancient times to the present day.
• Science and technology are very important to humans, affecting ways of life and making lives more comfortable through electricity and appliances.

Science

• Originates from the Latin word "scientia," meaning "knowledge."
• Traditionally defined as an organized and systematized knowledge body based on facts, determined by the scientific method.
• G. Gore (1878): Science is the interpretation of nature, with man as the interpreter.
• A. Einstein (1940): Science is the attempt to align sense experience with a logically uniform thought system.
• Calleja (1987): Science is a scholarly activity concerning the material world, including man but excluding non-biological activities.
• Huxley (1974): Science is common sense and the necessary mode of working of the human mind.
• Zimman (1976): Science is viewed as a product of the mind, that tends to ignore the body
• Simpson (1974): Science, a systematic orientation applied to all material aspects of our world.
• Posadas (1982): Science is a dynamic, cumulative system seeking to describe, understand, and predict natural phenomena.
• Caoili (1968): Science systematically understands and explains the laws of nature, aiming for new knowledge through research.
• Campbell (1974): Science studies judgments on which universal agreement can be obtained.

Science as a Process

• Science discovers relationships between observable phenomena using theories.
• Involves systematized theoretical inquiries seeking truth about nature.
• Determined by observation, hypothesis, measurement, analysis, and experimentation.
• It describes and explains the development of knowledge and studies the beginning and end of existing things.
• It conceptualizes new ideas, from abstract to particular, as a type of human cultural activity.

Science as a Product

• Science is a systematized body of knowledge based on facts or observed truths.
• It employs logical and empirical methods for the systematic observation of empirical phenomena.
• It is a source of cognitive authority, dealing with verifiable concepts.
• Science involves knowledge, people, skills, organizations, facilities, techniques, physical resources, methods, and technologies.
• It aims to understand the natural world effectively, involving observation, experimentation, and theorizing to explain collected evidence.

Why is Science limited?

• Science relies on human senses and the human mind, necessitating an intelligent being for its existence.
• The limitations of science are the limitations of human senses and the human mind.
• Investigation is bounded by what the senses can perceive, and explanation extends only to what the human mind can understand.
• Instruments like microscopes and telescopes extend the sense of perception.

Technology

• Believed to be of Greek origin, from "techne" (art) and "technologia" (systematic treatment).
• Commonly viewed as applied science, with scientists producing knowledge and technologists making products like computers and spacecraft.

Technology definitions

• Scribner-Bantan English Dictionary (1979): Technology is the science of industrial arts and manufacture, applied science, and all means for material comforts.
• Posadas (1982): Technology is the system of know-how, skills, techniques, and processes that enable societies to produce, distribute, install, maintain, or improve goods and services.
• Bridgstock (1998): Technology is a body of skills and knowledge by which we control and modify the world.

Technology as a Process

• Technology is the application of science through practice, description, and terminology of applied sciences.
• Technology intelligently organizes and manipulates materials for useful purposes.
• Focused on inventing new or better tools, materials, and methods, to improve ways of doing things.
• It uses scientific findings to produce new things for a better way of living.
• It searches for concrete solutions to give wanted results and is calculative, imitative, and manipulative.
• It forms a human cultural activity.

Technology as a Product

• Technology is a system of know-how, skills, techniques, and processes.
• Intrinsic to a cultural system shapes, reflects, and exists as a language, rituals, values, commerce, and arts.
• It arises from scientific concept and represents a complex mix of knowledge, materials, and methods.
• It means material products of human making or fabrication.
• Technology means total societal enterprise.
• Technology is any activity or product that increases man's chances of survival.

Is Technology part of Science?

• Technology enabled survival and progress by using limited understanding of nature.
• Science seeks to understand nature, while technology applies scientific discoveries.
• Usefulness is not a prerequisite for knowledge generation, but is for technology generation.

Society

• According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, society is an aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community.
• It defines a community as people living in a particular country or region with shared customs, laws, and organizations.

Science-Technology-Society (STS)

• Science-Technology-Society (STS) education cultivates for a scientifically and technologically literate citizenry.
• Aims to enable informed and responsible decisions affecting individual lives and the sustainability of the planet.
• Science and technology are crucial globally.
• Science alters our comprehension of ourselves and our place in the universe.
• During the Scientific Revolution, scientists began arguing that the Earth orbited the Sun and rotated on its axis.

Definitions of Science and Technology

• STS is a field of endeavor with a two-way interaction between science and technology.
• Employs interdependent and overlapping methods using existing knowledge and know-how.
• System of know-how, skills, techniques, and processes that enables society to produce, distribute, install, maintain, or improve goods and services needed to satisfy human needs.
• Interdisciplinary that explores how modern science and technology shape culture, values, and institutions, and vice versa.

Purposes of Science and Technology

• To improve the quality of the human condition.
• To provide solutions to practical problems.
• To establish relevant institutional linkages and essential mechanisms.
• To develop individual knowledge.
• To find order in nature and deliver personal and social liberation.
• To explain the natural world.
• To develop new areas of knowledge.
• To combat irrationality.
• To maintain the availability of natural resources.

Limitations of Science and Technology

• Epistemological concerns: Inability to address questions about God, ultimate Good, and Truth, nor confirm or deny the existence of God, soul, and heaven.
• Metaphysical concerns: Immaterial and transcendental nature beyond scientific inquiry, unable to speak to issues of ultimate origin, meaning, or morality.
• Axiological concerns: Cannot answer questions about value.
• Limited by the values and personal beliefs of its users.
• The utilization of natural resources is limited.
• Data is confined to physically observable phenomena.
• Ultimately depend on past observations.
• Not all principles are applicable to all world phenomena.
• Needs human intervention for proper functioning.
• Predicts natural forces but cannot prevent occurrences.
• Unable to guarantee ultimate solutions to specific problems.
• Cannot fully explain a person's mind.
• It is everyone's responsibility to understand how science and technology work.

Science vs. Technology

Scientific Method

• A process to gather information and to conclude about the natural world.
• Deliberate engagement in the scientific method to produce materials for economic gains.
• Steps:
  • Making observations and gathering knowledge about a phenomenon.
  • The prefix "super" means "above." So supernatural means "above (or beyond) the natural."
    • The toolbox of a scientist contains only the natural laws of the universe; supernatural questions are outside their reach.
    • Careful observation can help recognize a problem or phenomenon needing study.
    • Details can be determined through instrumentation and related literature.
    • Formulation of a hypothesis using inductive reasoning to provide a tentative solution.
    • Scientists use generalizations to form an intelligent guess (hypothesis) to explain a natural event.
    • The hypothesis is presented as statement and must be testable.
  • In the development and proving of hypotheses, scientists use inductive and deductive logic.
    • Inductive logic: Arriving at a probable conclusion based on samplings. Ex) Tasting multiple green mangoes to conclude all green mangoes are sour.
    • Deductive logic: Proceeds from a generalization to specifics. Ex) Hypothesizing the next mango will taste sour and tangy after testing 25 green mangoes.
  • The scientists may further formulate a new hypothesis using deductive logic.If 25 green mangoes are sour and tangy, then the next green mango I will taste should be sour and tangy.
  • If indeed the mango tasted sour and tangy, then the validity of the original generalization has gained greater probability (or credibility).
    • Testing of Hypothesis (Experimentation and Conduct of Further Observations)
  • In this phase, the scientist uses deductive reasoning involving the “if, then” logic.
  • Foresight or the capability to predict what will happen next is necessary to guide the scientist on how to go about his experiment.
  • The scientist must come up with an experimental design that will make him generate meaningful results. Usually a "control” or “control group” is set up side by side with the experimental group.
  • This contains all components and undergoes all parts of the experiment except for the factor being tested.
    • Drawing conclusions: Analyzing data to determine hypothesis support.
  • This contains all components and undergoes all parts of the experiment except for the factor being tested.
  • Data from the experiment either supports or rejects the initial hypothesis.
  • Data is presented in tables, graphs, and may require statistical analysis.
  • A conclusion answers the problem based on supported hypothesis.
  • Science is progressive, with conclusions leading to new hypotheses for testing
  • Conclusions lead to Scientific Theories, generally extensively tested and accepted until contradicted by new facts.

From Scientific Knowledge to Technology

• J. Watt's invention of a steam engine was made possible by J. Black's concept of latent heat.
• London's synthetic dye industry originated from W. Perkin's accidental discovery of aniline dye while trying to synthesize quinine.
• Hermann von Helmholtz's study on sound waves inspired A. Graham Bell’s telephone.
• The electrical industry stems from H.C. Oersted's work on magnetic fields and A. Volta's invention of electric batteries.
• The dynamo, alternator, and transformer were based on M. Faraday's concepts of motion, magnetism, and electricity.

Scientific Processes

• Scientific Processes

Basic Science Process Skills

• Observing: Use senses to gather information; descriptions are qualitative data.
• Measuring: Use standard measures or estimations; descriptions are quantitative data.
• Inferring: Formulate assumptions or explanations.
• Classifying: Group objects or events by characteristics or criteria.
• Predicting: Guess likely outcomes based on evidence patterns.
• Communicating: Use words, symbols, or graphics.

Integrated Science Process Skills

• Hypothesizing: Offer testable solutions or outcomes for experiments.
• Identifying Variables: State changeable factors, controlling all but the tested variable.
• Define Variables Operationally: Explaining how to measure a variable
• Describing Relationships Between Variables: explain relationships between variables in an experiment such as between the independent and dependent variables.
• Designing investigations: design an experiment by identifying materials and describing appropriate steps in a procedure to test a hypothesis.
• Experimenting: carry out an experiment by carefully following directions of the procedure so the results can be verified by repeating the procedure several times.
• Acquiring data: Collecting qualitative and quantitative data as observations and measurements.
• Organizing Data: Arrange data in tables and graphs.
• Analyzing Investigations and Data: Interpret data and identify errors.
• Cause and Effect Relationships: Understanding causes.
• Formulating Models: Recognize the patterns.

Characteristics of Science & Technology

• Scientific Traits and Values
• Intellectual Honesty: A scientist acknowledges others' work and reports data truthfully.
• Open Mindedness: Being open to different possibilities.
• Creative and Critical Thinker: Assessing results and limitations.
• Curiosity: Discovering more about the things around.
• Risk taker, confident and persistent: Continuing a project despite obstacles.
• Objectivity: Declaring results based on phenomena, not emotions.
• Precision: Work is precise.
• Collaboration and Readiness to reach consenus Gaining criticism.