Science and Technology
A Bedford Spotlight ReaderFirst Edition ©2020
Science and Technology explores questions around the central concepts of STEM fields: How do we interact with science and technology on a daily basis? Is technology surpassing biology? What are the ethics of science and technology? Does technology rule our economy? How is the internet ch...
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A brief and versatile reader about science and technology at an affordable price.
Science and Technology explores questions around the central concepts of STEM fields: How do we interact with science and technology on a daily basis? Is technology surpassing biology? What are the ethics of science and technology? Does technology rule our economy? How is the internet changing society? Readings by biologists, climate scientists, journalists, ethicists, novelists, engineers, and others take up these questions and more. Questions and assignments for each selection provide a range of activities for students.
The Bedford Spotlight Reader Series is an exciting line of single-theme readers, each reflecting Bedford’s trademark care and quality. An editorial board of a dozen compositionists at schools with courses focusing on specific themes assists in the development of the series. Each reader collects thoughtfully chosen selections sufficient for an entire writing course—about 35 pieces—to allow instructors to provide carefully developed, high-quality instruction at an affordable price. Bedford Spotlight Readers are designed to help students from all majors make sustained inquiries from multiple perspectives, opening up topics such as borders, food, gender, happiness, humor, language, monsters, music, subcultures, and sustainability, to critical analysis. The readers are flexibly arranged in thematic chapters, with each chapter focusing in depth on a different facet of the central topic. The instructor resource tab of each reader’s catalog page includes instructor support with sample syllabi and additional teaching resources.
“The authors have compiled an important reader for the twenty-first century composition classroom. Science and Technology tackles big, important questions and asks students to engage thoughtfully in an academic climate that is dominated by STEM.”
--Ryan Sullivan, Mt. San Jacinto College
“This reader provides instructors and their students with interesting texts relevant to STEM majors and non-STEM majors alike. The purpose is not necessarily to educate students on the debates surrounding science and technology but to awaken their curiosity and stimulate the critical and analytical skills that are so necessary in today’s complex society.”
--Carrie Wastal, University of California San Diego
“Science and Technology offers students the opportunity to explore a range of STEM-related topics through accessible and engaging readings, and the editors supply thought-provoking questions that invite students to join ongoing conversations about science, technology, and society.”
--Michelle Sidler, Auburn University
“Science and Technology expands traditional treatment of scientific and technological subjects in writing classes, inviting students to explore correlations among scientific and philosophical theories, connections between historical precedent and contemporary practices, and repercussions for future generations.”
– Lynee Lewis Gaillet, Georgia State University
"This book is compact, focused, instructor-friendly, and sensitive to student engagement. It reaches first-year writers with a variety of topics in which they can find personal interest and professional growth."
--Jennifer Allard, Mt. San Jacinto College
Table of Contents
About The Bedford Spotlight Reader Series
Preface for Instructors
Contents by Discipline
Contents by Theme
Introduction for Students
Chapter 1. Has Technology Made Us the Gods of the Natural World?
Beth Shapiro, Reversing Extinction
Emily Anthes, Animals Bow to Their Mechanical Overlords
Selina Wang, The Future of Farming Is Looking Up
Sarah E. Myhre, Treading the Fine Line between Climate Talk and Alarmism
Clive Hamilton, Why Geoengineering?
Thomas Sumner, Quenching Society’s Thirst: Desalination May Soon Turn a Corner, from Rare to Routine
Rob Wile and Pascal Lee, Here’s How Much It Would Cost to Travel to Mars
Francesc Torralba, The Argument of Future Generations
Chapter 2. Is Technology Surpassing Biology?
Bryan Walsh, New Natural Selection: How Scientists Are Altering DNA to Genetically Engineer New Forms of Life
Alice Park, The CRISPR Pioneers
Rohit Karnik and Robert S. Langer, Rebuilding Ourselves: Ushering in an Age of Synthetic Organs and Targeted Medicine
Martin Ford, The Healthcare Challenge
Sheldon Krimsky, Creating Good from Immoral Acts
Hillary Rosner, All Too Human
Jon Cohen, The Horror Story That Haunts Science: Two Hundred Years Later, Frankenstein Still Shocks and Inspires
Gary Shteyngart, from Super Sad True Love Story
Chapter 3. Have You Been Spied On Today?
William Eyre, Surveillance Today
Paul Mozur, Mark Scott, and Mike Isaac, Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein in a Wild Web
Stuart Sumner, Why All This Fuss about Privacy?
Steven Aftergood, Privacy and the Imperative of Open Government
Nicole Perlroth, Governments Turn to Commercial Spyware to Intimidate Dissidents
Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron
Scott Lucas, Why Cambridge Analytica Matters
Future Workplaces: Smile, You’re on Camera
Chapter 4. Who Controls the Economy, Us or the Technology We’ve Created?
Lisa Fickenscher, The Cutthroat Jobs Strategy Amazon Uses to Conquer Retail
Chris Anderson, Drones Go to Work
Natalie Kitroeff, Robots Could Replace 1.7 Million American Truckers in the Next Decade
Matt Britton, The Peer-to-Peer Economy
Liz Alderman, Sweden’s Push to to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’
Ole Bjerg, How is Bitcoin Money?
Meagan Johnson, Stop Talking about Work/Life Balance! TEQ and the Millennial Generation
Chapter 5. How Is the Internet Defining What Matters to Society?
The Media Insight Project, How Americans Get Their News
Malcolm Gladwell, Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted
Leo Mirani, Sorry, Malcolm Gladwell, the Revolution May Well Be Tweeted
Lori Ann Wagner, When Your Smartphone Is Too Smart for Your Own Good: How Social Media Alters Human Relationships
Sam Ross-Brown, Net Neutrality and the Fight for Social Justice
Ronald Brownstein, How Has Technology Changed the Concept of Community?
Brooke Borel, Can Artificial Intelligence Help Solve the Internets Misinformation Problem?
Sentence Guides for Academic Writers
Index of Authors and Titles
Authors
Erica Duran
Erica Duran is full-time English faculty in the Adult High School at MiraCosta College in Oceanside, CA. Erica spent eight years teaching first-year composition and critical thinking courses at the community college and university levels before her transition to teaching in noncredit programs at MiraCosta. She earned both a B.A. and M.A. in Literature and Writing Studies at Cal State University San Marcos, and she has completed coursework in the Post-Secondary Reading Certificate program at Cal State Fullerton. Although she has conducted research and presented on a variety of research topics from Ernest Hemingway’s post-war trauma to the flipped classroom format as an effective model for student veterans, her passion for exploring science and technology topics in the composition classroom continues to drive her current research interests.
Lauren Mecucci Springer
Lauren Mecucci Springer is an Associate Professor of English at Mt. San Jacinto Community College, in Southern California. Lauren has over ten years of teaching experience, both at the university and community college levels. Her current research interests are centered on feedback pedagogy and finding ways to bring STEAM into the composition classroom. She earned both a B.A. and M.A. in Literature and Writing Studies at Cal State University San Marcos. Currently, she is working on her Ed.D. at Grand Canyon University, where her dissertation investigates the most meaningful ways to provide feedback on students’ written work.
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Tips for Teaching Science and Technology Online or Remotely
Sample 16 Week Syllabus
Sample 8 Week Syllabus
Supplemental Resources
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