A New, Gateway Class Emphasizing Metrology

Abstract

The Purdue Polytechnic Institute is one of ten colleges on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Also included in the Institute is an outreach effort that includes ten locations spread throughout the state of Indiana to engage local communities and industries and to provide an alternative to the main campus for traditional and non-traditional students in those geographic areas. One of those areas is Columbus, Indiana, about an hour south of Indianapolis, and this paper relates experiences from that location. The Purdue Polytechnic Institute is using modernized teaching methods that are "research-proven, state-of-the-art teaching methods that are different, fun, challenging and more effective." One element of this is to bring these methods to a first-semester class so that the newest students can experience these methods and understand what to expect over their time with the Polytechnic Institute. Purdue Polytechnic Columbus is unique among the outreach locations due to a partnership with diesel-engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. that has led to an environmentally-controlled metrology lab located within the university facility. The lab contains a calibrated coordinate measuring machine, calibrated tensile tester, a surface finish instrument, a roundness tester and a plethora of donated hand tools including calipers, micrometers, height gauges, bore gauges, PI tapes, sine blocks, and several sets of gauge blocks. This new class attempts to integrate nearly all facets of the metrology lab into the learn-by-doing activities to provide a fun, unparalleled experience for the first-time students. Activities described in the paper include micrometer calibration using gauge blocks, a study of springs using a height gauge and mass standards, pressure and force measurements of footballs, load-displacement characteristics of various bandages, and calculation of volume and surface area of various objects using calipers, micrometers, and rulers. In all cases, students are required to summarize data by developing graphs and tables using spreadsheet software.