STS

• Science is the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence
• A primary aim of science is to collect facts (data)
• An ultimate purpose of science is to discern the order that exists between and amongst the various facts
• Technology is the rational process of creating means to order and transform matter, energy, and information to realize certain valued ends
• Society is a group of people involved with each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations
• Members of a society may be from different ethnic groups
• The word society may also refer to an organized voluntary association of people for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes
• STS focuses on the interplay between science, technology, and society, and how each element affects all the other elements
• Mans achievement in science can be categorized into two: Discovery and Invention
• The Stone Age is divided into three distinct periods: Paleolithic Period, Mesolithic Period, and Neolithic Period
• Paleolithic Period:

  • Early humans lived in caves or simple huts
  • Lived as hunters and gatherers, cooked using controlled fire
  • Used basic stone and bone tools, as well as crude stone axes for hunting
  • Left behind art and carved small figurines from stones, clay, bones, and antlers
• Four fundamental tool traditions during the Paleolithic Period:

  • Pebble-tool tradition with the Oldowan toolkit
  • Bifacial or hand axe-tool tradition with the Achulean hand axe
  • Flake tool tradition used as knives and scrapers
  • Blade tool tradition
• Mesolithic Period:

  • Toolkits included points for spears and stone awls for hides
  • Inventions such as needles, thread, skin clothing, harpoon, spear thrower, and special fishing equipment
• Neolithic Period is characterized by herding societies, bronze smelting, adoption of agriculture, and development of pottery
• Bronze Age marked the beginning of mining and metallurgy
• Iron Age started between 1200 B.C. and 600 B.C.
• Bronze is harder and more durable than other metals available at that time
• Shift to farming is known as Neolithic Revolution
• technology came from the Greek word "teckne" which means art/craft
• "teknologia" which means systematic treatment
• the early hominids are known as the austrolopithecine, homo habilis, homo erectus, and homo sapiens
• austrolopithecine is also known as the southern ape
• austrolopithecine stood upright and walked on two legs
• austrolopithecine's brain was about 1/3 the size of modern humans
• homo habilis was also known as the handy man
• homo habilis are early stone age choppers
• homo erectus are also know as wise man
• homo erectus was the first hominid to migrate out of Africa followed by homo sapiens
• homo erectus learned to control fire
• homo sapiens are also known as wise man
• homo sapiens appeared in Africa about 200,00 years ago
• homo sapiens learned to create fire
• homo sapiens developed language
• the ice ages began 1.6 million years ago
• Asia and North America were joined at Bering Strait
• the two groups of homo sapiens who migrated were: Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons
• pottery is a pyrotechnology