Uranus: 27 Moons and Counting
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Uranus: 27 Moons and Counting Introduction: The late 1700’s and early 1800’s were exiting times in the fields of science and technology. During the life of Elizabeth Monroe enlightenment ideas and ideals advanced many field of science dramatically. One of these fields was astronomy. German born British astronomer Sir Frederick William Herschel was an amateur astronomer, as well as a composer; indeed, it was his interest in music that led him to the study of mathematics and eventually lenses. As telescopes were not readily available and the parts for one Herschel desired to make were not easy to procure he decided to construct his own telescope. He was able to accomplish this through his study of mirrors and lenses. On March 13, 1781, while scanning the skies with a 7-inch reflecting telescope he noticed the object that was eventually found to be the planet Uranus. In 1782, he actually identified the planet Uranus and two of its moons, Titania and Oberon. It is worth noting that Herschel’s sister, Caroline, was also a noted astronomer at a time when women did not participate in the sciences very much. She is credited with discovering several comets, some of which are named for her in some way. Today, 27 moons surrounding the planet Uranus have been discovered. Objectives: 1. You will create a graphic table that lists all of the 27 Moons of Uranus along with the year they were discovered and their discoverer. The following information will be included on the chart: the names of the 27 moon of Uranus, the year they were discovered and the person or technology that discovered them. You may use an online poster maker to complete your work or an online table maker. Make sure that your resource is free. Do not forget to cite your sources. 2. You will use free online resources to create a timeline of discovery of the moons of Uranus. You will use a free online timeline creator to create a timeline of the discovery of the moons of Uranus. The timeline must contain the year the moon was discovered and the discoverer. You can search “free timeline creator”. Do not forget to cite your sources. 3. You will create a Multimedia Presentation (Powerpoint, Presi, etc) that has one page for each of the moons of Uranus. Each page will contain the following information: the year it was discovered, the discoverer, the diameter of the moon and the mass of the moon. The PowerPoint Presentation will have one page for each of the moons of Uranus. Each page will contain the following information: The year it was discovered, the discoverer, the diameter of the moon and the mass of the moon. Do not forget to cite your sources. Materials Required: Computer with PowerPoint and Internet access table from the following website: http://www.altiusdirectory.com/Science/moons-of-uranus.php Images of the moons (when possible—try NASA website). When each group completes its project, students will present their work to the class (on Friday). Links to your work should be sent to me ([email protected]) no later than Thursday evening. There will be a follow up assignment for after the presentations. .