Need Some Help With My Chemistry Lab?

for lab 4 we added steel wool to a copper(II) sulfate solution and stired the mixture until all the iron reacted allowing the copper particles to settle we then carefully poured off half of the solution into a second beaker. Soon after that we filtered the remaining solution through the filter paper and rinsed the copper residue several times with distilled water allowing the water to filter through each time, After that I removed the filter paper and placed it on a watch gl to dry overnight. how did the steel wool react with the copper and how did the copper settle.