Activity 1:

List down the scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs in each period. You may
conduct additional research and share what you have found in the class.

1. Ancient Times to 600 BC

 Cuneiform – written languages by Sumerian people. It is one of the earliest

systems of writing. This invention was made with the help of the stylus to make
wedge-shaped marks in the clay.
 Papyrus – It began as the first world’s type of paper.
 Potter’s wheel – the first potter’s wheel was invented in Mesopotamia. This
brought a revolution in the way ancient people could create items out of clay.

2. Advent of Science (600 BC to 500 AD)

 Static Electricity – Thales was the first to notice static electricity. He writes
about amber becoming charged by rubbing. He discovered that amber rubbed with
animal fur attracted light objects.
 Geocentric Model – The most highly developed geocentric model was
that of Ptolemy of Alexandria. His theory in which Earth is assumed to be
at the center of it all.
 Pythagorean Theorem – invented by the Greek mathematician named
Pythagoras.

3. Islamic Golden Age

 Camera – the first cameras were not made to create images but to study optics.
Ibn Al-Haytham, also known as Alhazen, an Arab scholar who was credited as
being the first person to study how human sees.
 Flushing hand-washing machine – Al-Jazari, who first discovered the
Automatic Handwashing device was specially made for Wudhu (washing parts of
the body using water) and now saving millions of lives.
 Surgical instruments – Al-Zahrawi al-ansari, founder of medieval surgical and
medical instruments. He introduced almost 200 surgical instruments.

4. Ancient China and the Far East

 Paper – the innovation of paper came during the Han Dynasty attributed
to an imperial unit. The process of paper making uses bark, hem, rags and
fishnets. This invention enabled the creation of lightweight books, which
are a better way of keeping records and information.
 Compass – used loadstone which was carved into a spoon shape and
automatically pointed to the south. Sat in a bronze plate and when moved
around aligned to the Earth’s magnetic field.
  Gunpowder – was discovered by alchemists. It was composed of
charcoal, saltpeter and sulfur. It was found that an explosion could be
created from certain proportions of these chemicals.
5. Renaissance
 Submarine – designed by Leonardo Da Vinci however Cornelius Vanderbilt was
the one who successfully developed the submarine (1624).
 Mechanical Clocks – the earliest designs incorporated a term which contains
mercury. The drum was driven by means of weights measuring a day’s time and a
24-hr cycle became possible.
 Printing Press – invented by Johannes Gutenberg. This invention proved to be of
great help in vernacular literature available to the masses.

6. Enlightenment Period

 Piano – This was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori in the year 1709.

 Fire Extinguisher – The first fire extinguisher was patented in England in 1723
by Ambrose Godfrey. It consisted of a cask of fire-extinguishing liquid containing
a pewter chamber of gunpowder.
 Mercury Thermometer – In 1714, Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the first mercury
thermometer. It consists of a bulb containing mercury attached to a glass tube of
narrow diameter. (The volume of mercury in the tube is much less than the
volume in the bulb)

7. Industrial Revolution

 Steam engines – an integral machine to industrialization which powered

factories, locomotives, and ships. The new stem engines used coal and iron, both
in the construction and as fuel, increasing demand for these resources.
 Roads – Roads, canals ad roadways changed Britain dramatically. Connecting
Britain, allowing goods to be sent over long distances.
 Spinning mule -

8. 20th century

 Internet – it started being developed in the late 1960s in California in the United
States as a way of government researchers to share information.
 Rocketship - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, proposed the idea of space
exploration by rocket. In 1903, he suggested the use of liquid propellants
for rockets in order to achieve greater range.
 Nuclear Power – The idea of nuclear power began in the 1930s, when
physicist Enrico Fermi first showed that neutrons could split atoms. Fermi
led a team that in 1942 achieved the first nuclear chain reaction, under a
stadium at the University of Chicago.

9. Fourth Industrial Revolution

 Blockchains – an increasingly attractive tool for industries such as
banking and insurance and will transform how companies operate.
 Genomics & Gene Editing – Today, biotechnology has advanced to the
point where it I viable to alter the DNA encoded within a cell and influence
the characteristics that its descendants will have after it reproduces by cell
division.
 Quantum Computing – Quantum computing will completely redefine
what a computer is and could give computing power that is million or
trillion times more powerful than supercomputers today.