Integrating 3D graphics into early CS courses
2006; Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges; Volume: 21; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1937-4771
Autores Tópico(s)Experimental Learning in Engineering
ResumoThe use of graphics, especially images of three-dimensional scenes, could be a powerful motivational tool in teaching early computer science courses such as CS1 and CS2. Unfortunately, producing 3D graphics in a Java or C++ program involves considerable overhead in learning and programming. Using a lower-level graphics library such as OpenGL inevitably exposes the student to a great deal of material perhaps more suitable to a computer graphics course. On the other hand, higher-level application programming interfaces such as Open Inventor or Java 3D present a high level of conceptual difficulty and overall complexity. This paper briefly surveys these two approaches and suggests that it is the full generality of each that makes them probably inappropriate for beginning programmers. An alternate approach is proposed, namely to use a higher-level pedagogically-focused API that insulates students from many of the details of using 3D graphics in their programs, yet is simple enough, at the sacrifice of generality, to be mastered and used with relatively little overhead cost. One such API is described, with sample assignments.
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