Unit 2: The engineering process; Lesson 3: How does technology improve our lives

Unit 2 Lesson 3 How Does Technology Improve Our Lives?

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company


The Technology Zone
• Most of the things people use every day are
technology.
• Examples of technology include pencils, bikes,
light bulbs, clothes, cooking food
• Technology doesn’t have to be complex or require
electricity. But, technology must meet a human
need.



The Technology Zone
• The way people meet needs changes with time.
• In pioneer days, food was prepared in a fireplace,
so heavy pans were needed. Today, people can
use plastic dishes to cook in microwave ovens.
• The need to prepare food hasn’t changed, but the
way people prepare food has.



Meeting People’s Needs
• Technology changes over time in response to
people’s needs.
• In the 1800s, long-distance communication could
take weeks or months. The need for reliable
communication increased as people moved west.
• As needs increase, new technologies develop
faster.



Meeting People’s Needs
• Through the 1800s, delivering a message crosscountry went from taking 25 days via stagecoach,
to one week via railroad, to minutes via telegraph.
• In 1915, cross-country telephone service began.
Eighty years later, the first smart phone was
developed.



Technology Risks and Benefits
• Technology can have positive and negative
effects.
• Positive effects, or benefits, are ways that
technology fills a need.
• Negative effects are risks. This might include
constant changes to technology or technology’s
negative impact on the environment.



Technology Risks and Benefits
• No matter what the technology, there are both
risks and benefits.
• For example, cars allow personal freedom by
letting you go almost anywhere and carry heavy
items that you could not move on your own.
• However, cars use gasoline that is made from oil,
a limited resource. They also cause air pollution
and can be dangerous if not driven properly.



Living Technology
• Engineered devices are sometimes used on living
things. This connects engineering and biology.
• Engineers who work with living things are called
bioengineers.
• The practice of applying the engineering design
process to living things is called bioengineering.



Living Technology
• Bioengineering can design tools that prevent
pollution, engineer plants to grow faster, or design
scanners to look inside the body.
• Bioengineering can benefit the environment,
health, and nutrition.
• Any product used to benefit organisms or their
environment is an example of biotechnology.



Living Technology
• Some bioengineers design devices, such as
artificial legs, skin, and hearts, that replace
human body parts.
• These artificial body parts do the same jobs as the
human body parts they replace.


Unit 2: The engineering process; Lesson 3: How does technology improve our lives

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