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
TIG Welding (GTAW)
TIG (GTAW) · in YWC Welding Courses · Weld for Real
8 weeks of YWC Welding Courses · Weld for Real: The Machine & Two Hands · The Tungsten · Gas, Cup & Gas Lens · Polarity & the Current · The Puddle, the Dip & the Cup …
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
SCIENCETECHNOLOGY & TRADESREADING & WRITINGMATHART & DESIGNBUSINESS & 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
- TIG is the opposite of MIG
- Everything in TIG starts at the tip of the tungsten
- TIG has no flux and no forgiving margin — the inert gas is the only thing protecting a puddle (and a hot tungsten) that will ruin instantly if air touches it
- Why can TIG weld both steel and aluminum, when aluminum has an invisible oxide skin that melts at three times the metal’s temperature
AT A GLANCE · 9 WEEKS
Q1 The Machine & Two Hands → 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 & Two Hands → The floor
WEEKS 1–9 · IN THIS OFFERINGTHE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 1The Machine & Two HandsTIG (GTAW)
TIG is the opposite of MIG. Nothing is automatic. One hand holds the torch, the other feeds filler, and a foot pedal rides the heat — three things at once.
WK 2The Tungsten
Everything in TIG starts at the tip of the tungsten. The type you pick, how you grind it, how you protect it — these decide your arc before you ever strike it.
WK 3Gas, Cup & Gas Lens
TIG has no flux and no forgiving margin — the inert gas is the only thing protecting a puddle (and a hot tungsten) that will ruin instantly if air touches it. Gas coverage in TIG is life-or-death for the weld.
WK 4Polarity & the Current
Why can TIG weld both steel and aluminum, when aluminum has an invisible oxide skin that melts at three times the metal’s temperature? The answer is the current type.
WK 5The Puddle, the Dip & the Cup
This is the week your hands learn the dance. Form a puddle, dab filler into its front edge, move, repeat — a rhythm as steady as a heartbeat.
WK 6Carbon & Stainless
TIG on steel is where precision meets the metals that carry the world’s food, medicine, and pressure. Stainless especially is unforgiving — too much heat destroys the very corrosion resistance you’re welding for.
WK 7Aluminum — the Hard One
Joe called aluminum the reason TIG is the hard one — and shipped this course “aluminum included.” It fights you three ways: an oxide that won’t melt, a metal that drinks heat then suddenly collapses, and no color change…
WK 8The TIG Capstone
Everything in eight weeks converges into one make: pick the metal, the tungsten, the gas, the current; run the dab-and-move with total control; produce a clean, fused, un-collapsed weld; then inspect and defend it.
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 TIG (GTAW) ask you to be able to do by week 8?
The make. Every week's assignment and the quiz as practice: The Machine & Two Hands · The Tungsten · Gas, Cup & Gas Lens · Polarity & the Current …
The evidence. Handed in through TIG (GTAW) 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 TIG Welding (GTAW) and every course in the catalog. Pick a pass, or enter a school code; checkout stays on this page.