Image Processing for Teaching: A national dissemination program

The "Image Processing for Teaching" (IPT) project provides a powerful medium to excite students about science and mathematics, especially children from minority groups and others whose needs have not been met by traditional "coded" ways of teaching these subjects. IPT offers open-ended opportunities for exploration, discovery, and quantitative analysis. Using professional quality software on microcomputers, students explore a variety of scientific data sets, including biomedical imaging, Earth remote sensing and meteorology data, and planetary exploration images. They also learn about the mathematical concepts that underlie image processing. IPT curriculum materials cover all areas of mathematics and science for elementary school through college levels, allowing this tool to be used across a variety of subjects and student interests. Through the non-profit Center for Image Processing in Education (CIPE), teachers across the country are learning image processing and how it can be incorporated into their classes. CIPE provides materials, implementation support, and teacher education for school districts, for colleges, and for other education projects that want to incorporate image processing into their educational programs.