Who discovered Uranium and when/ where was it discovered? 

The element Uranium was discovered in Berlin, Germany in 1789 by a German chemist, Martin Heinrich Klaproth. December 1, 1743 was when Martin Heinrich Klaproth was born and he lived until he was 74, passing away on January 1, 1817. Uranium wasn’t the element that he discovered in his lifetime. He also discovered Zirconium the same year he discovered Uranium (1789) and cerium fourteen years later in 1803. He started teaching chemistry in many military schools and other schools, and he later became a professor at the University of Berlin in 1810. The element Uranium was discovered in Berlin, Germany while he was studying the mineral pitchblende which was then thought to be zinc, iron or ore. After he was doing tests with acids, he realized that he discovered a new element. 

What is Uranium used in/for?  Why was the discovery of the element so significant?  How is Uranium useful? 

One of the main things that Uranium provides us with is nuclear fuel which is useful for generation electricity at nuclear powers stations. This is important because they use the heat that is generated from the fuel to make the turbines turn and generate electrical power. Some of the other synthetic elements are made from Uranium. Uranium is also found in nuclear weapons, submarines and it is used in the military for shields, protection and for their tanks. In the 1800s Uranium wasn’t used a whole lot, they used it for colouring and decorating glassware to give in a yellow/ green tint. 

What was he trying to test? 

When he first found Uranium, he didn’t actually find pure Uranium, he found Uranium dioxide. He was analyzing mineral samples from silver mines in the Czech Republic. 

What is special about Uranium that differentiates it from other elements? 

Uranium is naturally radioactive, and the element helped discover what radioactivity actually is. Uranium has an unstable nucleus which makes the element stay in a consistent state. There was at test don’t by a French physicist who was trying to test how the light influences the salts. He placed some salts on a photographic plate and waited to see results. He quickly saw that the plate was starting to fog up, so he came to a conclusion that there was so sort of emission coming off of the Uranium salts. Once he shared his results, he was given a Nobel Prize for the discovery. 

What are the properties of Uranium? 

How did Uranium get its name? 

Uranium was discovered in 1789 which was nine years after the planet Uranus was discovered. The element was named after the planet because it was a fairly new discovery. 

Where can you find Uranium? 

Uranium is one of the naturally occurring elements that can be found in most rocks, soils and waters. Uranium is layered in the earths’ crust and it is one of the more common ones found in the earth. In Canada the most common place for mining Uranium is in Northern Saskatchewan. Some are closer to the surface and some are further down which is harder to mine. 

Sources: 

http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/92/uranium 

https://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele092.html 

https://www.chemicool.com/elements/uranium.html 

https://www.livescience.com/39773-facts-about-uranium.html 

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Heinrich-Klaproth 

https://www.lenntech.com/periodic/elements/u.htm 

https://cna.ca/technology/energy/uranium-mining/ 

https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1976.tb23123.x 

Part 2 

1. What questions did I need to research in order to research my topic? 

Who discovered uranium and when/ where was it discovered? What is Uranium used in/for?  Why was the discovery of the element so significant?  How is Uranium useful? What was he trying to test? What is special about Uranium that differentiates it from other elements? What are the properties of Uranium? How did Uranium get its name? Where can you find Uranium? 

1. What digital tools did I use to try and work through this project? 

To find my information for this project I mainly used google as my search engine, but I also used the google scholar to find some facts. 

1. What was the process that I used to investigate the topic? 

To research about my topic I first came up with questions that I thought was appropriate for the topic and that I thought would be important. I then looked at the questions to see if any of them were similar to each other so I could group them together to make it one question. Then I started to research my questions and as I did that, I came up with other questions that I could elaborate on. 

1. How did I verify and cite the information that I found? 

To check the information, I looked to more than one cites to see if the information was consistent throughout the websites and to make sure they all had around the same information. To cite the website, I used the link as my source. 

1. How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could I have done better? 

The process of completing this went well and I think I did everything correctly. If I could change something that I did, I would change the way that I did the research. I would start with one question and find the answer to that and the go onto the next question instead of going back and forth between the questions.