Evaluating a Culminating Experience in a Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing Course

A geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) course has been offered as an elective for Engineering Technology students at Illinois State University since the fall of 2016. The course covers introductory and advanced GD&T concepts, modeling and drawing activities, and precision measuring activities on a coordinate measuring machine (CMM). From 2016–2019, the last lab activity in the course involved planning the GD&T for a robot end of arm tooling plate (EOAT PLATE), modeling and creating an engineering drawing of the part, developing a quality dimensional measurement plan (QDMP), and inspecting the part based on the engineering drawing specifications. In 2020, this activity was modified and divided into three labs during the last four weeks of the course. LAB 11 now consists of the planning the GD&T for the EOAT PLATE and then creating a model and engineering drawing of the part. LAB 12 requires students to develop a QDMP of the EOAT PLATE where students must indicate how features will be measured on the CMM and how they will be reported. In LAB 13, students now execute their QDMP on the CMM. This paper will examine student work before and after the culminating activity was revised and assess outcomes related to the course. Examples include the quality of the GD&T specifications students place on their drawings, the relationships between these GD&T specifications and items on the QDMP, and the relationships between tolerances on the engineering drawing and items on the inspection report.