Science, Technology and Society Studies

Outline of the course:

Contact hours :           Monday, Wednesday, Friday 10:00 to 11:30 am

Broad Content: (for 35 to 40 contact hours)

* Science, Technology and Society,  exploring their nature and identifying some issues at the interface of science, technology and society

* Patterns in data: comprehension and representation

* Demography: population growth, age-sex pyramids, sex ratios diseases, morbidity and mortality, global warming, etc.)

* The World of Trade (Agriculture, Colonisation history, Free Trade, Globalisation including Dunkel Draft, GATT, WTO regime, IPR, TRIPS, Plant Breeders' Rights, etc.)

* Development Indicators: GNP, GDP, Education, Health and Issues of Equity (rural/ urban and male/ female), HDI and their co-variance patterns

Assessment / (Marks) (Total = 150 marks)

* Assignments / (30)

* Preparation for class, performance on quizzes, classroom participation / (20)

* Seminar presentation & summary (2 per student ~V one assigned, one of choice) / (30 + 30)

* One term paper of about 3000 words (approx. 6 to 8 A4 typed pages in single space): an analysis of one of the

topics to be given on October 1, 2008. Submit final paper on or before November 21, 2008. (40)

References:

Teaching Science, Technology and Society, Joan Solomon, Open Univ. Press, Buckingham, 1993

Foundation course on science, technology and society: Curriculum books 1 to 8, series editor Chitra Natarajan, HBCSE, 1996 to 1999

The Ascent of Man, J Bronowski, 1973

The Roots of Reason, Arvind Kumar and Sangeeta Mahurkar (Eds), Quest Pub, 2002

The Whale and the Reactor, Langdon Winner, 1986

Does Technology Drive History? M.R. Smith and L. Marx (Eds), MIT Press, USA. 1994

The Citizen’s Reports (first to fifth), Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi

World Development Report (after year 2000)

Human Development Report (after year 2000)

Future Shock, Alvin Toffler, 1970

The Bhopal Saga, Ingrid Eckerman, 2005

Global Parasites: Five Hundred Years of Western Culture, Winin Pereira and Jeremy Seabrook, Earthcare Books, 1994

Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962

Teaching the Interactions of STS, I. Lowe (Ed), Longman Cheshire, UK. 1987

Videos (e.g. An inconvenient truth, etc.)