Teaching Graphics with the OpenGL

Introduction
The problem of developing an introductory course in computer graphics
that is both sufficiently broad and deep is well established in the field of
computer science education. While it is generally agreed that interactive,
realtime curricula are more suitable for new graphics students than their
offline, rendering-oriented counterparts [6, 8], determining which specific
material is of maximum import, as well as the precise manner in which to

present this material, remain subjects of continuing debate [2].
Existing pedagogical approaches may be broadly categorized as either
top-down, in which students use one of many popular graphics APIs (such
as OpenGL) to incrementally build complex graphical applications [14], or
bottom-up, in which students develop toy implementations of each stage of
the graphics pipeline [12]. In practice, neither of these methods has proven
wholly satisfactory. In the top-down approach, students are at risk of be-coming embroiled in the technical idiosyncrasies of their chosen API, often
to the marked detriment of their theoretical understanding of the underly-