For my Science 9 Sway Project I chose an element from the Periodic Table of Elements and conducted research on it. The element I chose was Neptunium.

Part 2 Questions:

Ask – What questions did you need to research in order to create your sway? 

These are some questions I used to research that helped me better understand Neptunium. 

• What is Neptunium? 
• When was Neptunium discovered? 
• Who discovered Neptunium? 
• Who named Neptunium? 
• What is Neptunium used for? 
• How is Neptunium produced? 
• What is the actinide series? 
• What are transuranium elements? 
• What are some interesting facts about Neptunium? 
• What is allotropic form? 
• How does fission happen? 
• What is nuclear fission? 

Acquire – What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project? 

These are the familiar digital tools I used. I tried using Gale to help conduct my research, but no articles were related to Neptunium, which could be because Neptunium is a rare chemical that few articles wrote about it. As a result, Plutonium articles were provided, but that was not the chemical I was doing research on. 

• Bing 
• Wikipedia 
• Britannica 
• Google 

These are the new digital tools that helped my research. 

• Live Science 
• Royal Society of Chemistry 
• Creative Commons 

Analyze – What was the process you used to investigate the topic and how did you verify and cite the information you found? 

To gather information for my Sway project, I used the sheet provided from the teacher to note down key information from the sites I found. Using my notes, I opened Word to write down my draft, and to save my process. To reference the sites I found my information from, I copied and pasted the links onto my Sway. Wikipedia is often questioned whether the information is accurate. I know it might not provide accurate information, which is why I used other websites like Britannica and Live Science. They are both science websites that provided me with similar results as Wikipedia, which proves to me the information is trustworthy. To help find pictures, I used Bing and Creative Commons, they both provided me with great images.  

Assess – How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better? 

Learning about Neptunium was a delightful experience, not only did I learn about Neptunium I was exposed to new chemistry terms that were related and used when Neptunium is being discussed. I had a lot of joy in creating and writing my Sway, it was an entertaining process where I can learn and put scientific definitions into my own words and understanding. Reflecting on my project, I should have found more science websites or online encyclopedias to confirm that my information is true. Do more research on the science behind the process of producing Neptunium and I should have used Google early in my research, because it took me days to realize that Bing provided less helpful informational sites than Google.