AbstractThe CHprogramming environment is an open system. Users can enhance the system through its various user interfaces. CHis specially designed for applications in mechanical systems engineering, although it is applicable to many other disciplines as well. CHhas been successfully used as a teaching and learning tool for an undergraduate course, Computer‐Aided Mechanism Design, at the University of California, Davis in Fall 1993. In this article we will present the CHprogramming environment and programming features developed for teaching and student learning. We will describe how a teaching toolbox is developed and used for teaching mechanism design. Source codes in the teaching toolbox are available to students so that they can study the software implementation of algorithms and modify the codes to solve similar problems. Although the developed teaching toolbox is specific for instruction on mechanism design, the CHprogramming environment and ideas presented in this article are general, and they are applicable to instructional improvement for a wide range of subjects in engineerin