Technological Design

Getting access to clean water for all of earth's people is a need of society that may be addressed by new technology.

Many problems and needs of society could potentially be addressed by technology. Some deal with basic human needs to stay safe or have access to food and water. Others deal with the wants of society--things that are nice to have but that we don't necessarily need in order to survive. In either case, some kind of problem (a want or need) is recognized. People then apply scientific knowledge and creativity to try to come up with a solution. This is the beginning of technological design. The technological design process is an ordered sequence of steps that flows from identification of a problem to development of an acceptable solution. In other words, after you identify a need, you plan out the steps to get that need met by designing a technological solution.

As you continue through this lesson, you'll learn more about the specific steps involved in technological design. For now, it is important to realize that a technological solution to a problem does not necessarily have to be a tangible object or "gadget." A technological solution can also be a process. Click on the picture below to see an example of a technological solution that is a process instead of an object.

Foto: Martina Nolte, Lizenz: Creative Commons by-sa-3.0 de [CC-BY-SA-3.0-de], via Wikimedia Commons

This picture shows a wastewater treatment plant, which is a place were wastewater that contains human sewage and other pollutants is cleaned and treated to have harmful substances removed. Wasterwater treatment is a process that involves several steps, which is why you see several distinct zones in this picture. In each zone or area, wastewater goes through one of the treatment steps that make up the whole process. These steps may include exposing the water to certain microorganisms or chemicals that help clean up the water. This is an example of technology. It's not a gadget or an object but a process. In this case, the need was to get rid of sewage wastes. Science showed how microorganisms and various chemicals can be used to remove harmful substances from wastewater. Then, technology applied that scientific knowledge to put together a process wherein the wastewater could go through several stages of treatment with microorganisms and chemicals.

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