This module tackles specific issues in science and technology in the context of the information age, biodiversity and health, GMOs and gene therapy, nanotechnology and climate change. By critiquing specific issues in the context of how these affect human lives, this module aims to empower students toward a renewed understanding and appreciation of science and technology in the present context of society. This module is composed of five lessons Lesson 1: The Information Age Lesson 2: Biodiversity and a Healthy Society Lesson 3: Genetically Modified Organisms and Gene Therapy Lesson 4: Nanotechnology LESSON 1: THE At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to IFORMATION AGE 1. Trace the development of the information age from the introduction of printing press up to the era of social media; 2. Determine the impacts of the information age to the society; and 3. Analyze the ways which the information age and social media influence human lives. PRELIMENARY ACTIVITY INSTRUCTION: By using the following logos as clues, identify the online application for each number. .THE INFORMATION AGE HOW DOES THE INFORMATION AGE STARTED? . The Information Age began around the 1970s and is still going on today. itis also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, or New Media Age This era brought about a time period in which people could access information and knowledge easily. Figure 1. The World of Internet Around 1440, a German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. This invention paved way to improve the manual, tedious and slow printing methods This makes the printing methods easier and faster and reduced the costs of printing documents. Figure 2. Johannes Gutenberg© Aprinting press is a device that applies pressure to ee an inked surface lying on a print medium, such as cloth or paper, to transfer ink. * The development of a fast and easy way of disseminating information in print permanently reformed the structure of society. * This enables printing methods faster and they drastically Reduced the costs of printing documents. Figure 3. The Printing Press © Political and religious authorities who took pride in being learned were threatened by the sudden tise of literacy among people. * The printing press made the mass production of books, newspapers and journals possible which makes them available not only for the upper class. THE CYPHER MACHINES S * As years progressed, calculations became involved in communication due to the rapid developments in the trade sector. * Back then, people who did engineering calculations served as “computers”. * During the World War II, countries were challenged by shortage of human computers for military calculations. * The US addressed the problem on shortage of human computers by creating the Harvard Mark |, a a general purpose electromechanical computer that |= bs was 50 feet long and capable of doing calculations in Figure 4. Harvard Mark | seconds that usually took for hours. * At the same time, Britain needed mathematicians to crack the German Navy's Enigma code. “The Enigma Code was an enciphering machine that the German armed forces used to securely send messages. Figure 5. Th Alan Turing (1912-1954) *Alan Turing is an English mathematician, was hired in 1936 by the British top-secret Government Code and Cipher School to break the Enigma Code. - His code-breaking methods became an industrial process having 12,000 people working in 24/7. * To counteract this, the Nazis made the Enigma more complicated by having approximately 10" possible permutations every encrypted message. Figure 6. Alan Turing ‘* Turing, working on the side of the Allies, invented Bombe, an electromechanical machine that enabled deciphering the encrypted message of the improved Enigma of the Germans. © This contribution of Turing shortened the war by two years (Munro, 2012). THE DAWN OF THE COMPUTER AGE b * In 1970s, the generation who witnessed the dawn of the ‘ computer age was described as the generation with “electronic brains” - The people of this generation were the first to be introduced to personal computers (PCs) * The Homebrew Computer Club, an early computer hobbyist group, gathered regularly to trade parts of computer hardware. They think of ways on how to make computers more accessible | to everyone. * In 1976, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Inc., developed the computer that made him famous: the Apple |. - Wozniak designed the operating system, hardware and circuit board of the computer all by himself. © Steve Jobs, Wozniak's friend suggested to sell Apple |.as a fully assembled printed circuit board. This jumpstarted their careers as founders of Apple Inc. Figure 8. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak THE RISE OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA@ From 1973 onwards, social media platforms were introduced: ‘* Multi-User Chatrooms and Instant Messaging Applications: -AOL - Yahoo! Messenger - Messenger (FB) - Hangout * Game-based social networking sites: - Friendster - MySpace - Facebook * Business-oriented social networking sites - xing - Linkedin * Messaging, Video and Voice Calling: - Viber - Skype * Photo-Video sharing sites: = Instagram - Snap Chat -Pinterest * Live-streaming - Twitch * Question and Answer social media platform -Quora * Dating-oriented platforms -Tagged -Tinder - Omegle - Bumble Figure 9. The Social Media These social media platforms enable information exchange at its most efficient level. The information age, which progressed from the printing press to the development of numerous social media platforms, has immensely influenced the lives of the people. The impact of these innovations can be advantageous and disadvantageous depending on the use of these technologies. Co sewms 7) DOCUMENTARY FILM VIEWING