Computer graphics in undergraduate computational science education

Computer graphics is an important part of a working scientist's toolkit. The graphics may be provided by resources with the scientist's group or by capabilities of the toolkits that the scientist uses directly in his or her work. However, in order for the scientist to understand how computer graphics images represent models and what possibilities there are for this representation, and for the occasional time when the scientist may want to create a presentation that is beyond the capability of standard tools, it is important for the science student to understand the basic capabilities and processes of computer graphics. This paper outlines how a computational science program can give students the background they need to have this understanding.