JEFFERSONTOWN, Ky. - It's the final countdown for Jeffersontown High School students and many are in the midst of their final exams.  But not all exams are created equal. 

Students studying computer-aided design or CAD are putting their classroom skills to the test in the water.  They created cardboard boats to test their engineering, paddling and perseverance skills.

The students spent the year studying traditional curriculum as well as working with sophisticated software that allowed them to design their boats in the lab and then build them with actual materials. Instructor Jason Stepp says each student is given two rolls of duct tape, but that isn't nearly enough. Students say they used as many as eleven rolls of tape and spent a lot of their own money on their creations.

Stepp believes making the class fun will encourage students to pursue more courses like this and spark their interest in other courses.  Students say colleges have reached out to them because of their progress in CAD.