Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
At a small college an upper-level elective having even one math prerequisite that isn't part of the required CS curriculum can often prevent the course from running due to low enrollments. Here we describe an upper-level computer graphics course for students having only the CS math background typically required at a small college, which does not include linear algebra or a third course in calculus. The goals, emphasis, and pedagogy of the course address the students' math deficiencies, while at the same time still build a firm, technical foundation in computer graphics. In this paper, our focus is on pedagogical changes we have made to strengthen students' geometric reasoning skills. We present a set of discovery workshops in which students use software tools to experiment with fundamental geometric operations and visually see the results. A series of interactive activities challenge students to use the tools to do such things as find visual counter examples and visually design solutions to solve new problems.
Robin Flatland (Wed,) studied this question.