1. What is Techonology?

U.D. 1 — FIRST CONTACT WITH TECHNOLOGY

Introduction

Technology is the body of knowledge related to making things, things that are useful to make our lives more comfortable and our work  more productive. Things such as: ploughs, chairs, telephones...

Technology is a broad concept. It is about the use and knowledge  of tools and how they affect our ability to control and adapt to our surroundings.

Technology and Society.

"Technology and society" (or "technology and culture') refers to the influence that each has on the other.

Technology affects society and vice-versa.

For example, because there are telephones, a shopkeeper can call a supplier to demand a product, without having to travel. But if people had no need to talk to other people who are far away, telephones would not
exist.

Technology and Science

The relationship between science and technology is particularly strong.

For example, we know how to build a microscope so we can see bacteria. And with our knowledge of bacteria we can build sewage treatment plants.

Our ancestors first used fire by maintaining natural forest fires.

The Homo habilis started the development of technology with a technique to make fire.

This happened hundreds of thousands of years ago. Fire was good for heating and grilling meat.

 Later came the conversion of natural resources into simple tools, like stone axes.

Axes were good for cutting trees.

 Much later, modem humans invented things like the wheel.

The invention of the wheel helped humans in traveling and transporting merchandise.

The wheel was invented around 2700 BC.

It is hard to imagine today's world without the wheel.

Recent technological developments, including the printing press, the telephone, and the internet, have reduced physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact on a global scale.

In many societies, technology has helped develop more advanced economies and has allowed the rise of a leisure class.
Technology and ethics.

However, not all technology has been used for peaceful purposes; the development of weapons of ever-increasing destructive power has progressed throughout history, from wooden clubs to nuclear weapons.

 Many technological processes produce unwanted by products, called "pollution".

Some technological activities deplete natural resources, to the detriment of the Earth and its environment.

Experts propose a change in our way of life to reduce pollution emissions.

 There is some debate over the present and future use of technology in society. Some people want to develop more environmentally-friendly technologies.

Some technological developments are raising new ethical questions, especially in the fields of biotechnology and genetic engineering.

The tools in the workshop

Metal File       Use the metal file to remove small amounts of metal. You can also use it to remove small amounts of wood. You will get a nicer finish than with the wood saw. The grooves of the file are small, that is why the finish is nicer than that of the wood file and it also is the reason why less material is removed.
Wood File The wood file is coarse. This is because the grooves of the file are large. Use it to take off larger amounts of wood than with the metal file, but don't expect to get a nice finish with it.
Hammer  You probably already know how to use it, nevertheless ...do not be careless! Hammers normally have a wooden handle; wood is light and absorbs vibrations well. The head is normally metallic, almost always steel. Steel isheavy and resilient (resistant to fracture by impact).
Ruler We use the ruler to draw straight lines and also to measure things. Normally, on one side there is a scale in centimetres and millimetres and on the other there is a scale in inches and eighths of an inch. There are ten millimetres in a centimetre. There are eight eighths of an inch in an inch. In some countries people use inches as unit of length. One inch is approximately two and a half centimetres.
We use the hand clamp to hold together two pieces. For example, if we want to glue two pieces of wood with a  glue that takes time to harden, we can use the hand clamp to keep the two pieces together while the glue hardens. The jaws are made of cast iron. The sliding jaw has an inner thread for the shaft, which has a screw adjustment to tighten the wood pieces. Handles were traditionally made of wood to offe sometimes made of plastic and coated with rubber. The bars are made of steel or aluminium. They have sliding jaw stays in position.
Bench Clamp We can use the bench clamp for the same purposes as the hand clamp. We can also use it to hold a piece that we want to work with. For example, we can clamp a wood board and then we can comfortably saw it. The working principie of the bench clamp is the same as the hand clamp, but it is a lot more robust and stays fixed to the bench. The bench is the workshop table, made of a thick board.
(falt and cross) Screwdriver It is used to screw and unscrew screws with a single slot in their head  Cross head screwdriver The difference between the flat head and the cross head screwdrivers is in the tip.  The cross head screwdriver has a crossed-head tip and the flat head screwdriver has a flat tip.
Pliers Pliers are used for a variety of purposes. The most common use is to grip objects to work with them, for example to undo a bolt or to bend a wire. Pliers have parallel handles, a pivot where the handles join, and parallel jaws that grip the object. There are special pliers for specific purposes, such as cutting wire or bending wire into loops. Special pliers have special features. A common special type of pliers is the "plumber's pliers", it has an adjustable slip-joint to allow for big adjustments it the width of the space between jaws.
Caliper The caliper is used to more precisely measure small distances. The precision is normally one tenth of a milimitre. The length measured goes from one milimitre to a few centrimetres.
Scissors       Scissors have two steel blades that rotate around a spindle screw. A pair of scissors will cut better or worse depending on how sharp the blade edges are. On the other side of the spindle there ara holes for the fingers so that both blades can be operated at the same time with only one hand. The handle is normally made of plastic adhered to the steel.
Spanner Spanners are the tool used to tighten and loosen nuts and bolts. There are several types, the most common ones being the open spanner, the ring spanner and the adjustable spanner.

Activities for the unit 1.

Activity 1: Measure the width of an object.

Write down the reading obtained. Then let another member of your team measure the same object.

In the example given the reading is 47.2 mm.

Compare your readings with the readings obtained by the other student.

The readings should coincide. If you have different values, then investigate who is right.

Activity 2: Find out the origins of paper.

As homework, look for information at home and write the history of paper. The length of text
should be one side of an A4 size page.

Activity 3: 

Technology sometimes has a specific vocabulary.
For example, technological items are often composed of parts and those parts have specific names.

In the example shown, some of the parts of a boat are given.

Choose another object, for example a lamp, a bicycle, a tap ... draw it and write the names of its different parts.

 Activity 4:       

Using a ruler with two scales, one in centimetres and one in inches, draw a line of ten centimetres and then measure it with the inches scale.

How many inches long is it?

Now, using the inches scale, draw a line two inches long and another six inches long. How many centimetres long are they?

Activity 5:

We have seen some examples of technological items discovered in ancient times.
Can you think of a new invention for the future?
Write down your ideas and draw them as well as you can.