Mrs. Mary Koster’s physics class went on a field trip at Purdue University Northwest Hammond Campus on Thursday March 10. 

    Five juniors and one sophomore attended the field trip in collaboration with their project involving the steel mills. 

    “We have talked a lot about vectors and I am hoping students can see a project Purdue is currently working on with the steel mill,” says Mrs. Koster.

    Her class experienced a movie in 3D and discussed a gaming program called Unity, which helps create video games. They also experienced the oculutor glass as they put out a fire with the extinguisher.

    “That was a simulation that CIVIS created for the steel mill to use to teach the workers about fire safety,” Koster says. 

    PNW professors talked to students about the relationship the college has with different companies to solve their problems from air flow with NIPSCO to the steel industry, and the use of coal to make steel.

    “Our current lesson is on projectile motion and we got to learn a lot about virtual reality games they made and the motion needed for it. I want to go into analyzing things,” says junior Aranza Toral-Arellano. 

    Some challenges when preparing this field trip we’re lining up a time to go, making sure that transportation is available and getting students to fill out basic paperwork and go.

    Koster wants to show students that challenging things are happening right outside their back door in Hammond.