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Original Articles

TEACHING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PRINCIPLES TO NON-TECHNOLOGISTS — LESSONS LEARNED

Pages 1155-1170 | Published online: 07 Feb 2007
 

ABSTRACT

Much has been written over the past several decades on the “inevitability” that the technological revolution will transform international, interpersonal, and business relations. But are the effects of technological change as far reaching as the literature suggests and where it does reach does it penetrate very deeply into the general culture, its organizations, or into the psyche of its citizens? The linkage of science and technology education to industrial trends, and its prominence in pubic policy debates makes it all the more important to ensure that the educated public have as complete a grounding in S&T issues as possible. Perhaps it is a unique twenty-first century paradox that it is more important for “progress” and public policy formulation to focus the attention of our educational system upon the inter-relationships, consequences, and implications of current and previous technological developments rather than mindlessly joining the “bandwagon of progress.” Students must be exposed to the theories, language, culture, engineering difficulties, societal implications, and public policy problems posed by the inevitable advance of technology. The primary target of such efforts should be the non-technologists who tend to enter government service, run for public office, enter the teaching profession, are more politically active and where the greatest multiplier effect can be achieved.

Acknowledgments

Notes

http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind00/c8/fig08-04.htm

National Science Foundation, Science & Engineering Indicators 2000. http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind00/start.htm

http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind00/c8/fig08-06.htm

Ronald J. Stupak, Future View(Fall 1995): 1, 4.

http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind00/c8/fig08-17.htm

http://www.computer.org/history/development/1801.htm

http://www.computer.org/history/development/1801.htm

http://www.compududes.com/museumimages/jacquardloom.htm In consequence of the Industrial Revolution, the late 18th century had witnessed a considerable expansion in the automation of processes that had once been the preserve of small groups of highly skilled workers employed in so-called ‘cottage industries’. The textile industry was one sphere were industrialization had rendered obsolete such skills. Whereas, prior to the development of mechanical looms and weaving machines, lengths of fabric had to be woven slowly by hand, the advent of powered tools for carrying out this task meant that quantities of fabric could be mass-produced at a far quicker rate than previously, thereby reducing its expense. There was one area, however, where the new machines could not compete with skilled manual workers: in the generation of cloth containing anything other than a plain (or at best extremely simple) woven pattern. The Jacquard Loom provided a solution to this problem so that, with it in use, extremely intricate patterns and pictures could be automatically woven into cloth at much the same rate as a plain length of fabric could be generated. Jacquard's invention of the punched card is now recognized as important largely because of the influence it had on other developers of computing machinery.

http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind00/start.htm

http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind00/c8/fig08-01.htm

http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind00/access/c8/c8s1.htm

Bill Noxon, U.S. National Science Foundation, quoted in the Washington Post (July 21, 2001): A21.

OECD, Education at a Glance, 2001. http://www.oecd.org//els/education/ei/ EAG2000/wn.htm

The NSF has classified the public into three groups: The attentive public: Those who (1) express a high level of interest in a particular issue, (2) feel well-informed about that issue, and (3) read a newspaper on a daily basis, read a weekly or monthly news magazine, or read a magazine relevant to the issue. The interested public: Those who claim to have a high level of interest in a particular issue, but do not feel well informed about it. The residual public: Those who are neither interested in, nor feel well-informed about, a particular issue.

National Science Foundation, FY 2001 Department of Defense Share of Federal R&D Funding Falls to Lowest Level in 22 Years, (February 26, 2001).

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