Can You Copperplate?

Student Worksheet:

 Engineering Teamwork and Planning
You are part of a team of engineers given the challenge of applying a copper surface to another metal. You can choose the metal item/items you want to plate and also the chemical solution and timing you think will work best.  You will develop two different approaches and see which works best.

Step 1: Determine two methods for copper plating and identify your items.  Note, you may wish to consider placing multiple items in one of the solutions…but be aware that any copper released from the pennies or other copper based coins you have will then be diluted between multiple metal items and so you may not see results. In the box below, describe your solution, method, timing, and the items you will copper plate.

Solution	Describe Solution (include quantity of each item you will include)	Describe items to be plated	Describe method (including timing, rinsing methods, etc.)	Anticipated Result	
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Can You Copperplate?

Student Worksheet:

 Presentation and Testing

Step 2: Present your plan and anticipated outcome to the class.  Consider the ideas of the other teams and adjust your plan if you like.

Step 3: Test your two methods and note your observations in the box below.

Solution	What Happened to the Solution?	What Happened to the Item you were trying to plate?	What happened to the pennies or copper surfaced items/coins?	Did this method work?	
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Can You Copperplate?

Student Worksheet:

 Reflection 
Complete the reflection questions below:

1. Was your team able to copperplate a metal item? What factors do you think contributed to the success or failure of your method?

2. If you found you needed to make changes to your method after listening to the methods planned by other teams, describe why your team decided to make revisions.

3. Which method that another team adopted was the most successful?  Why do you think this method worked so well?

4.  Do you think that this activity was more rewarding to do as a team, or would you have preferred to work alone on it? Why?  

5. Do you think that chemical engineers have to make many attempts to achieve a goal?  What do you think it would be like to fail over and over before having success?

6. What industry or business do you think might want to use the method you developed?