Building hovercraft has proven very popular with the author's engineering students at Knightstown Community High School. The activity uses inexpensive, readily available materials: foam board, a pop-up water bottle cap, a balloon, and hot glue. In this article, the author describes the hovercraft project and how the project provides excellent…

Many educators believe that solid modeling software has made teaching two- and three-dimensional visualization skills obsolete. They claim that the visual tools built into the solid modeling software serve as a replacement for the CAD operator's personal visualization skills. They also claim that because solid modeling software can produce…