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Using image processing projects to teach CS1 topics

Authors:

Richard Wicentowski,

Tia NewhallAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Volume 37, Issue 1

Pages 287 - 291

https://doi.org/10.1145/1047124.1047445

Published: 23 February 2005 Publication History

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Abstract

As Computer Science educators, we know that students learn more from projects that are fun and challenging, that seem "real" to them, and that allow them to be creative in designing their solutions. When we have students beating down our office doors wanting to show us what they've done, we know we have designed a project that truly meets its pedagogical goals. In CS1 courses, it is often difficult to come up with large, real-world programming projects that are at an appropriate level and that really excite students. This is particularly true in the first half of the course when students are learning basic programming and problem solving skills. We found that assignments based on image processing are an effective way to teach many CS1 topics. Because students enjoy working on the projects, they come away with a solid understanding of the topics reinforced by the projects. In this paper, we discuss many ways in which image processing could be used to teach CS1 topics. As an example, we present two image processing projects that we use in our CS1 course. These large, real-world programs are designed so that students can successfully master them early in their first semester of programming. Even though our CS1 course is taught using the C programming language, these projects could easily be used by a CS1 course in C, C++, or Java. We provide starting point code for Java and C versions of the projects, and provide sample assignment write-ups on our project webpage [12].

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Index Terms

Using image processing projects to teach CS1 topics
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education
        Information science education

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Published In

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 37, Issue 1

2005

562 pages

ISSN:0097-8418

DOI:10.1145/1047124

Issue’s Table of Contents

SIGCSE '05: Proceedings of the 36th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
February 2005
610 pages
ISBN:1581139977
DOI:10.1145/1047344
Conference Chairs:
Wanda Dann
Ithaca College
,
Tom Naps
University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh
,
Program Chairs:
Paul Tymann
Rochester Institute of Technology
,
Doug Baldwin
SUNY Geneseo

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 23 February 2005

Published in SIGCSE Volume 37, Issue 1

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3632620.3671095
Ossovski EBrinkmeier MBecker AHembrock LKalbreyer DKlecker S(2022)Heterogenitätsbewusste digitale Gestaltung eines Einführungsmoduls in der InformatikHeterogeneity-Aware Digital Design of an Introductory Module in Computer ScienceMedienPädagogik: Zeitschrift für Theorie und Praxis der Medienbildung10.21240/mpaed/48/2022.06.14.X48(170-190)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2022
https://doi.org/10.21240/mpaed/48/2022.06.14.X
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