META24 WORKFORCE LAB · GRADED TO THE CORE · PROJECT-BASED · A COURSE IN WELDING · MIDDLE SCHOOL · UPPER SCHOOL · GRADE 6–12 · 0.25 CREDIT · AWS SENSE LEVEL 1
Stick Welding (SMAW)
Stick (SMAW) · in YWC Welding Courses · Weld for Real
8 weeks of YWC Welding Courses · Weld for Real: The Machine & Polarity · Striking & Holding the Arc · The Stringer Bead, Flat · The Rods & the Rod Locker · Fillets & the Weave …
The weeks are the course’s own, read from the lab; the catalog pads the last weeks with the capstone and the floor so the course fills a whole term.
THE MIX · HOW MUCH OF EACH CORE SUBJECT THIS COURSE CARRIES · IN ORDER
TECHNOLOGY & TRADESMATHSCIENCEREADING & WRITINGART & DESIGNCODING & AIBUSINESS & ENTERPRISE
The squares are a picture of a course — how much of each core subject its own rooms carry, read from the rooms’ text — never a score of a student. Every course in a lab is graded to the core across the board; the squares say which columns it feeds most.
LEADS TO · THE CERTIFICATION
AWS SENSE Level 1 · the welder performance qualification (WPQ) IN PERSON · issued by American Welding Society · a certified welding inspector. In the booth. A test plate welded in position, bent and judged by a CWI — there is no virtual weld test.
EVERY CERTIFICATION →WHAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO
- Before a single arc, you own the machine
- Everyone can strike an arc for a second
- Now you run beads on purpose
- A stick welder is only as good as their rod knowledge
AT A GLANCE · 9 WEEKS
Q1 The Machine & Polarity → The floor — The assignments · weeks 1–9
ALSO IN WELDING · YWC WELDING COURSES · WELD FOR REAL
A quarter
9 WEEKS · ONE QUARTERQuarter 1 · The Machine & Polarity → The floor
WEEKS 1–9 · IN THIS OFFERINGTHE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 1The Machine & PolaritySTICK (SMAW)
Before a single arc, you own the machine. Stick welding is the oldest arc process and the most portable — but it only works if you understand the circuit you’re standing inside and which way the electricity is flowing.
WK 2Striking & Holding the Arc
Everyone can strike an arc for a second. The skill — the one that separates a welder from a beginner — is holding a steady, correct arc length for the length of a whole rod. This week is nothing but that.
WK 3The Stringer Bead, Flat
Now you run beads on purpose. Flat position, stringer beads, one after another — building the four things you control at once: angle, arc length, travel speed, and a straight line.
WK 4The Rods & the Rod Locker
A stick welder is only as good as their rod knowledge. The number stamped on the flux — E7018, E6010 — is a full spec: strength, position, polarity, and personality.
WK 5Fillets & the Weave
Most welds in the world are fillet welds. This week you learn the joint that pays the bills — the fillet — how it’s measured, how it fails, and how a weave fills a bigger one without burning through.
WK 6Vertical Up
This is where welders are separated from the rest. Turn the joint vertical and gravity stops helping and starts pulling your molten puddle straight down. This week is the technique that beats it.
WK 7Overhead & Horizontal
The hardest position welds molten metal over your head with gravity trying to pour it onto you. Plus horizontal, where the puddle wants to sag off the top plate.
WK 8The Stick Capstone
Everything from eight weeks in one make: set the machine, pick the rod, run a sound weld in a real position, then inspect and defend it the way an employer would. This is your stick proof.
WK 9The floor
The floor: the work is done in the room, logged in the room, kept in My Work.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
The assignments · weeks 1–9
The question. What does Stick (SMAW) ask you to be able to do by week 8?
The make. Every week's assignment and the quiz as practice: The Machine & Polarity · Striking & Holding the Arc · The Stringer Bead, Flat · The Rods & the Rod Locker …
The evidence. Handed in through Stick (SMAW) inside YWC Welding Courses · Weld for Real, kept in My Work; the Report reads it from there.
A course is a quarter, a semester or a year — nine, eighteen or thirty-six weeks — a project a quarter. Offered as the year, a semester or a quarter, it is the same course seen through a window. A lab is a family: its year, each of its tracks as a course, and its rooms. The evidence is what a student hands in through the room; the Report reads it from there. Nothing in the catalog is a grade.
THE PASS · THIS COURSE AND EVERY OTHER ONE
One pass includes Stick Welding (SMAW) and every course in the catalog. Pick a pass, or enter a school code; checkout stays on this page.