Science and Engineering
Ch. 1, Section 4
What You Will Learn:
• Explain how science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics are closely related.
• Identify ways that technology responds to social,
political, and economic needs.
• Explain the engineering design process for
developing new technologies.
• Describe how technology has intended benefits
and unintended consequences.
Imagine that you are in Antarctica, the coldest place
on Earth. Icy winds could freeze your exposed skin in
seconds. The first explorers to Antarctica used fur-
lined clothing and sleeping bags—the best available
at the time. However, once fur got wet, it was very
hard to dry out. Because of this limitation, early
explorers faced a constant struggle to stay dry and
warm.
Today's high-tech fabrics and improved equipment
make it possible for research teams to stay in
Antarctica year-round. Better clothing and
equipment are the result of scientists' and engineers'
problem-solving efforts to create a new technology.
Scientists use the technology of weatherproof
clothing to protect them from the harsh elements
while doing their work in Antarctica.
What Is Technology?
Technology refers to the products, processes, tools,
and methods that are designed to serve our needs,
such as creating these products and processes. For
example, a memory chip is a technology. The tools
and processes used to make the chip are also
technologies.
The example of the memory chip might imply that
technology relates only to new products and
processes. This is not true. Technology applies to any
product, process, or knowledge that is developed to
meet a need. Compared with a computer, a
typewriter is old technology. However, compared
with a pencil, a typewriter is advanced technology.
How Does Science Relate to Technology?
"Scientists discover the world that exists;
engineers create the world that never was." In
other words, engineers use science and
mathematics to create new technologies that
serve human needs.
When you think of an engineer, you might think of a person
who designs bridges or skyscrapers. But there are many
different types of engineers who develop a variety of very
different products. Hybrid cars, waterproof clothing, and
disease-resistant corn were all developed by engineers.
Engineers also designed the tools and processes needed to
make these new products. For example, engineers not only
created cell phones but also designed the machines used in
making cell phones and the processes used to transmit the
microwaves that make cell phones work.
Engineering is the process of creating technology.
Although professional engineers have produced a
great deal of technology, you don't have to be an
engineer to engage in engineering. This picture
shows a student who has built an engineering
project. Scientists, inventors, business owners,
artists, and even students have also engineered new
technologies.
Anyone can follow the
engineering design process
to solve a problem or
address a need.
What Is the Engineering Design Process?
The engineering design process has similarities to
the scientific process. Like the scientific process,
some steps may require repeating or modifying to fit
different needs. Learning the process will help you
understand how new technology is created.
Engineering Design Process
Step 1
Ask: Identifying and Researching a Need
The first step in the engineering design process is
identifying a need. Engineers define and write the
need or problem they are trying to solve. For
example, the problem may be to make clothing that
repels water so that explorers can work, even in
Antarctica. Researching explorers' needs, weather,
environmental conditions, and existing materials
provides engineers with information for problem
solving.
Engineering Design Process
Step 2
Imagine: Developing Possible Solutions
Once the need has been identified and researched,
the second step is to think about possible solutions.
This can include the brainstorming of ideas.
Brainstorming is the process in which a group of
people share ideas quickly to promote additional
ideas. Sometimes a possible solution to the problem
comes from these ideas or it may take more time
and thought. Occasionally, one product may spark an
idea for another product (example on next slide).
A group of engineers used a resin for nonstick
surfaces to make a waterproof, breathable fabric. As
the figure shows, the holes are too small to let water
droplets in but large enough to let the moisture from
perspiration out.
Engineering Design Process
Step 3
Plan: Making a Prototype
After the best idea is chosen, the third step is
building a prototype. A prototype is a test model of
the product. Prototypes allow engineers to see if
their design works the way they expect it to. Figure 4
shows examples of this cold weather clothing.
Prototypes helped engineers make protective
clothing for explorers in the frigid conditions of
Antarctica.
Engineering Design Process
Step 4
Create: Testing and Evaluating
Testing and evaluating, the fourth step, helps
determine whether the technology does the job it
was designed to do. Prototypes are tested and
evaluated. Engineers make sure that the cost of
designing and producing the new product is worth
its benefit. This is called a cost-benefit analysis.
Waterproof and breathable fabric might be used to
make excellent outdoor clothing, but it only makes
sense to do so if it is not too expensive to produce.
Engineering Design Process
Step 5
Improve: Modifying and Retesting the Solution
If a prototype were not successful or did not work
well, the engineers would follow the fifth step in the
engineering design process. They would either
modify their prototype or try a new solution. It is
important that the engineers consider what was
learned from the first prototype. They would begin
the design process again with their new knowledge
and continue working on the problem.
Scientists and engineers also look for other possible
uses for the new product. For example, the thin,
waterproof membrane material was used
successfully, not only in expedition clothing, but also
in products as varied as medical implants and dental
floss. It also became an important technology for
preserving old documents.
The next slide shows the five steps in the
engineering design process.
Engineering Design Process
Technology and Society
Now that you have learned about how the engineering
design process can use technology to solve one
particular problem, you can start to see how technology
can affect society. Technology provides solutions for
many types of social, political, and economic needs.
For example, architectural engineers fulfill a social need
by designing accessible housing for the elderly. Political
needs include a city government's need for information
to improve police, firefighting, and medical services. For
this purpose, computer engineers write software
programs that make data collection accurate and
efficient. When civil engineers develop new materials
for building more durable, less expensive roads, they
satisfy an economic need.
Intended Benefits
Think about how the automobile has affected the
way we live. With cars, people can travel many miles
in short periods of time to commute to such places
as work, school, the grocery store, and sports events.
Cars provide their intended benefit—to provide
many individuals with a convenient way to travel.
An intended benefit is the positive purpose for
which a technology is designed to be used.
Society recognizes that the intended benefit of using
motor vehicles has improved peoples' lives, and
towns and cities have adapted to handle vehicle
traffic. Fuel for motor vehicles is readily available,
streets have been paved to make driving safer, and
many garages have been built for parking and storing
vehicles.
Automobiles
allow many
people to take
driving vacations.
Unintended Consequences
Cars provide the intended benefit of ease of travel,
but they have both positive and negative
unintended consequences.
Unintended consequences are uses or results that
engineers do not purposely include in the design of
products. An unintended consequence can be
beneficial. For example, roadside restaurants and
other new businesses that provide people with jobs
have been positive unintended consequences of
using motor vehicles for travel.
Unintended consequences can have a negative impact on society.
Example:
•Cars produce pollution as they burn gasoline, which
reduces the quality of the air we breathe, such as a traffic
jam.
•Motor vehicles can be dangerous when involved in
accidents. More than 42,000 people are killed on our
nation's roads and highways each year.
•Roads, parking lots, and garages take up valuable land.
•Asphalt paving changes the way water is absorbed into
the land.
•Car engines require oil that can leak onto the ground and
eventually pollute the water supply.
These unintended consequences are harmful and
lower the quality of life, no matter where people are.
Traffic jams in Earth's
urban areas are one
unintended consequence
of the development of the
technology of motor
vehicles, such as cars and
trucks.
The difficulty of disposing of
unwanted equipment can be
a negative unintended
consequence of using the
technology of cars,
televisions, or computers.
These are just some of the effects of the use of cars
on our society. Some effects are positive, while some
are negative. Not all technologies introduced into
society have had such impact on society, but many
have. Think about how society has been changed by
computers, cell phones, television, and the Internet.
Bioengineering
The engineering design process can even be applied
to living things. Bioengineering is the application of
engineering to living things, such as humans and
plants. Bioengineers and scientists study problems
that occur in living organisms and their
environments. They use their skills, knowledge, and
technology to develop solutions to these problems.
Bioengineering
Do you know someone who has
had refractive laser eye
surgery? This procedure
changes the shape of the eye to
correct a person's vision so that
he or she does not need to
wear glasses. This surgery is a
biotechnology that, in some
cases, can replace an older
technology—eyeglasses.
Assistive Bioengineering
Bioengineered technologies can be classified as
either assistive or adaptive. The picture shows both
adaptive and assistive bioengineered technologies.
The wheelchair and the material for knee
replacement both help people be more mobile.
Assistive technologies are developed to help
organisms without changing them.
For example, eyeglasses are an assistive
technology that helps people see more clearly.
Wheelchairs and hearing aids are two more
examples of the many assistive bioengineered
products that can improve our lives.
Antibiotics are an assistive technology that has
changed medicine.
They enable people's immune systems to
destroy bacteria that cause disease.
Adaptive Bioengineering
Adaptive bioengineered products differ from
assistive ones in that they actually change the living
organism. Adaptive bioengineering has been used
for many exciting new technologies. One of these
technologies in the medical field is refractive laser
eye surgery. This surgery improves vision by
changing the shape of the eye. Another kind of
adaptive biotechnology is the development of new
strains of crops in agriculture. Engineers are
developing corn that can grow with less water and
that is more resistant to drought.
Refractive laser eye surgery is an adaptive
bioengineered technology.
Notes
To Sum it UP!
• Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are
closely related.
• Engineers develop technologies to meet social, political, and
economic needs.
• The engineering design process describes the steps for
developing new technologies.
• Technology has intended benefits and unintended
consequences.
• Bioengineering is engineering that develops technology for
living things.
• Assistive bioengineering develops technologies that assist
but do not change for living things.
• Adaptive bioengineering develops technologies that help
living things by changing them.
Using Key Terms
Complete each of the following sentences by choosing
the correct term from the word bank.
engineering science technology
cost-benefit analysis
1. ______ is the use of science and mathematics to
develop technologies that can solve problems.
2. People study _____to understand the natural
world.
3. A _____can tell if a new technology will be
affordable to produce.
Understanding Key Ideas
4. Which of the following is a step in the engineering
design process?
a. Identifying and Researching a Need
b. Modifying and Retesting the Solution
c. Making a Prototype
d. All of the above___________________________
5. Which of the following is an adaptive
bioengineered product?
a. pair of crutches
b. artificial heart
c. pair of eyeglasses
d. hearing aid
6. What are prototypes and why are they built as
part of the engineering design process?
Math Skills
7. Engineers are working on a cost-benefit analysis
for a new car model. They drove the car, used three
gallons of gasoline, and traveled 225 miles. How
many miles per gallon did the car get?
Critical Thinking
8. Applying Concepts: Think about the technology of
airplanes. How have the benefits of airplane travel
changed society? What are some of the unintended
consequences of airplanes, and how have they
impacted society? 0607.T/E.3
9. Applying Concepts: In the engineering design
process, does each step occur only once? Explain
your reasoning.
10. Consumer Focus: People who have misaligned or
missing teeth may have difficulty chewing food
properly and may have other health problems.
Describe how you could design and test an adaptive
prototype that could meet this need. 0607.T/E.4,
0607.T/E.5
Science and Engineering
Ch. 1, Section 4
What Did You Learn:
• How science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics are closely related.
• How to identify ways that technology responds to
social, political, and economic needs.
• How the engineering design process is used for
developing new technologies.
• How technology has intended benefits and
unintended consequences.