Summary

In this activity, students will take on the role of research engineers who work for a chemical company that sells coatings for different types of surfaces. Students are required to design a procedure for testing their common household coating to prove its durability to various types of stresses. Students will be required to create procedures that can collect both quantitative and qualitative data as well as an appropriate data table.

Grade Level

Middle School or High School

NGSS Alignment

This activity will help prepare your students to meet the performance expectations in the following standards:

• HS-ETS1-1: Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.
• Scientific and Engineering Practices:
  • Asking Questions and Defining Problems
  • Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

Objectives

By the end of this activity, students should be able to

• Design multiple procedures to test a product.
• Create a labeled data table.
• Provide examples of qualitative and quantitative data for designed experiments.

Chemistry Topics

This activity supports students’ understanding of

• Experimental Design
• Scientific Method
• Data Collection

Time:

Teacher Preparation: 5 minutes

Lesson: 50 minutes

Materials

• (Will vary) Teachers can ask students to produce output on a whiteboard, paper or on a computer program.

Safety

• No specific safety precautions need to be observed for this activity.

Teacher Notes

• Teachers may have students work individually, in pairs or in small groups.
• Students may be assigned all of the same coating or different coatings depending on the teacher’s preference.
• A possible list of coatings to choose from include:
  • Kitchen Pans
  • Kitchen Counters
  • Garage Floor paint
  • Nail Polish
  • Interior Wall Paint
  • Exterior House Paint
  • Road Paint
  • Windshield glass coating
  • Traffic sign paint
  • Coating on inside of washing machine
  • Coating on inside of stove
  • Coating on inside of microwave
  • Coating on inside of dryer
  • Coating on floor of bathtub
  • Other paints or coatings that students choose.
• There are a variety of ways that you could have the students do this activity. You can make it a short introductory activity or a longer activity that takes a couple days. The students could write their ideas on paper, or gain experience with computers by typing their lab procedures and data tables into Google Docs or other word processing programs. The students can turn in their labs to the teacher, or share with the class. They could use posters, whiteboards, or post their ideas to a class online message board. Teachers could even have their students make a short video describing how they are going to test the coating.
• A student example/answer key has been provided for teacher reference.