WASSCE SHS
Science explains how things work. Technology puts that knowledge to use. Both can raise the quality of life, and both can harm people if they are used carelessly.
In farming, improved seed, fertiliser used with judgment, and better storage raise what a household can harvest and keep. In health, vaccines, clean water and ordinary drugs prevent deaths that were once common. In communication, a phone lets a farmer hear a price before travelling to market. These are the positive lines the paper expects, tied to a Ghanaian setting rather than to a gadget for its own sake. Name the technology and the human result.
The same tools have costs. Fertilizer washed into a river feeds algae and kills fish. A mine that is not restored leaves pits and poisoned water. Social media spreads useful news and also rumour. Machines can displace workers who have no new skill. An answer that is only praise, or only fear, is half the syllabus. The balanced point is that society chooses how a tool is used, through law, education and the habits of the people who buy it.
A positive effect and a negative effect must both be specific. "Technology is good and bad" scores nothing. Pair the tool with the outcome: mobile phones and market prices, or pesticides and polluted water. Do not invent a statistic about how many jobs were lost. If you mention a harm, the stronger scripts add a control: regulation, training, or safer practice.
These are practice questions in the style of the paper, with a model answer and a mark scheme. They are not a promise of what your paper will ask.
4 marks
Explain two ways science and technology have improved life in a farming community. (4 marks)
Improved seed and careful use of fertiliser raise yields, so a family can feed itself and sell a surplus. A phone lets the farmer learn the market price before paying for transport, so the journey is not wasted.
2 marks
Explain one way the same farming technology can harm the environment if it is misused. (2 marks)
Fertiliser or pesticide washed into a stream pollutes the water and can kill fish that people eat and sell.
2 marks
State two ways a country can enjoy the benefits of technology and reduce the harm. (2 marks)
It can regulate dangerous practice, and it can train users so that tools are handled safely.
More questions on this topic are inside GLearn, marked as you answer, with the reason written out. The first ones need no account.
Practise Social Studies freeScience is organised knowledge about how the world works. Technology is that knowledge built into a tool or a method people use. A study of plant nutrition is science. A fertiliser made from that study is technology.
No. They raise yields, improve health and speed up communication. They also pollute, spread rumour and can put people out of work when they are used without rules or training. A full answer holds both sides. All WASSCE Social Studies past questions