2.3.1.

17 Science, Technology, and Society

Science, Technology and Society (STS) is for students from any NUS faculty or discipline who want to
understand the immense influence of science and technology on modern social, political, religious, and
cultural life. The core courses within STS are historical and sociological, but electives are offered across
a broad range of departments and faculties. Students need no background in any particular discipline to
do well in this Minor.

The Minor in STS is designed to:

1. Serve as a formal scholarly ‘meeting ground’ for students throughout the university who are curious
about the science-technology-society relationship.
2. Present students with a basic yet critical history of modern science, engineering, and medicine, i.e.,
how, where, and when they arose, and why they came to have such inordinate influence in the
modern world.
3. Present students with a basic understanding of how social scientists study the physical sciences, life
sciences, technology, and medicine, and how these activities have become embedded in social
processes.
4. Allow students to understand how science and technology differ from (and converge with) other
realms of human thought and activity. To expose students to critical thinking on the ‘scientific
method’, the manipulation/conservation of nature, and similar concepts.
5. Acquaint students with the idea that science and technology (as human understandings of/mani-
pulations of nature) interact with social, political, cultural, religious, and other realms normally
considered ‘outside’ nature. To expose students to the lively scholarly disagreements as to the depth
and limits of this interaction

Programme Requirements

Requirements for Cohort 2010 and After:

Pass at least 24 MCs from the basket of minor in STS modules, which include the following:

1. A minimum of two essential modules (8 MCs)

2. From the list of electives, a minimum of two modules (8 MCs) at level-3000
3. A maximum of two elective (8 MCs) can be a ‘GEM’ or ‘GEK’; designation. Cross listed electives that
were not taken under the GEM/GEK designation do not count towards this restriction (only
applicable to students from Cohort 2014 and before)
4. Students are limited to taking a maximum of three modules from a single department (outside the
student’s major).

ESSENTIAL MODULES

HY2251 From the Wheel to the Web

PH2223/GEK2037 Introduction to the Philosophy of Technology

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SC3211 Science, Technology, and Society

ELECTIVE MODULES

LEVEL-1000

GEK1013 or GEH1021 Rethinking Technology, Organisations & People

GEK1046 Introduction to Cultural Studies

GEK1501 Information Technology and Us

GEK1502 Food Security and Safety

GEK1506 Heavenly Mathematics: Cultural Astronomy

GEK1513 Wireless Communications: Past, Present & Future

GEK1522 or GEH1025 Global Environmental Issues

GEK1527/LSM1302 Genes and Society

GEK1536 or GEH1017 Computation and Machine: Ancient and Modern

GEK1539 or GEH1018 A Brief History of Science

GEM1536 or GET1020 Darwin and Evolution

LEVEL-2000

GEK2506 or GEH1026 Drugs and Society

GEM2502 or GET1010 Modes of Invention

GEM2902 Climate Change

HY2235/GEK2008 Environmental History

NM2101 Theories of Communications and New Media

Communications and New Media Research

NM2102
(To Cohort 2012 only)

NM2209 Social Psychology of New Media

PH2201/GEM2025 Introduction to Philosophy of Science

PH2216/GEK2031 Environmental Philosophy

PH2217/GEK2032 Computerisation and Ethics

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PH2225/GEK2041 or GET1025 Science Fiction and Philosophy

SC2211 Medical Sociology

PH2226 Concept of Nature in Inquiry

SC2221 Environment and Society

SN2251 The Information Revolution in India

SSU2000 Biomedicine and Singapore Society

UPC2206 Nanoscale Science and Technology

LEVEL-3000

GE3231 Natural Hazards

HY3223 Technology and Culture in the Asia-Pacific

HY3252 From Tropical Medicine to Bioscience

NM3202 Governance and New Media

NM3210 Cybercrime and Society

PH3213 Knowledge, Modernity, and Global Change

SC3218 Inquiry in Health and Society

SE3218 Industrialising Singapore and Southeast Asia

JS3226 Japan: The Green Nation

LEVEL-4000

NM4225 Critical Interaction Design

A maximum of 8 MCs can be used to satisfy the requirements of a major or another minor.

Not all modules offered by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of
Science in the list are offered every year, and new modules might be added from time to time.

For the latest updates, please visit the Minor in STS website at: http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/oop

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