Agradecimentos: Authors thank Mr. Mauro B. Borges and Mr. João Bueno (Newtex) for the donation of the PP samples. Special thanks for the friendly undergraduate students of the Laboratory II (EQ 701) 2016 and 2017 Fall Term classes, School of Chemical Engineering of the State University of Campinas, in particular the technician Fabrício dos Santos, for the support on the experiments; as well as Prof. Lucia Innocentini Mei and Dr. Leonardo Zborowski. Authors also thank São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) support under grant 2019/22554-4 Ver menos

Abstract: This paper presents a practical laboratory approach on polymer melt flow rate and stress-strain testing to teach undergraduate students how to measure important properties of molten and solid plastics. They may learn how to obtain parameters that are important for: quality control; processing; engineering design on polymer and petrochemical industries; and even in materials selection for engineering applications. Starting from a database obtained from this traditional practice, statistical tools for data analysis were applied. Four different grades of commercial polypropylene were studied, and the 95 % confidence intervals of different parameters were compared with the suppliers' catalogue data. This pedagogical approach aims to add a statistical point of view to laboratory experiments and to complement the learning Ver menos