A number of organization promote the idea that the relationship
between science and technology and society should be taught at the K12
level, instead of just teaching the basic facts of science. But
if you look carefully, you will see that there are two different
reasons for doing this. Some promoters of STS in
K12 schools see
STS as a way of getting students interested in science or of promoting technological
literacy. They want to produce more students who will major
in science in college (particularly women and minorities) and they
believe the way to do so is to show that science is relevant to our
lives. The other group wants students on the K12 level to start
to understand that science/technology and society are not
separate. Science is much messier than the scientific method that
K12 students used to be taught, and students need to understand from an
early age that science and technology are not neutral tools but instead
shape our society, for good and for ill. In your paper, argue for
or against teaching K12 students that science is not nice and neat but
rather is affected by society (notice that I am interested here in the
impact of society on science, not just on the impact of science on
society). In other words, the two sides are:
STS should just be used to make science more appealing
K12 students should be introduced to the problems of science
and technology and how society shapes what scientists and engineers
do.
Make sure you focus on teaching students about STS, not
on using technology to teach.