Image Processing in Your Classroom
This
page features lesson plans and images for doing image processing
projects with K-12 students. These lessons were developed by educators
as part of an image processing course, EDTC 680: Image Processing for
Educators at Eastern Michigan University. They were selected and edited
by Dr. Mike Charles, currently an Assistant Professor in the College of
Education, Pacific University. They are posted here to make them
available to other educators who are using visualization tools to help
their students explore science and mathematics.
All
of these activities require NIH Image, a public domain image processing
program for the Macintosh developed by Wayne Rasband at the National
Institutes of Health (NIH). You may also use Scion Image, another
public domain program developed by the Scion Corporation.
Click the thumbnail image to see a larger version of the image. Click
on the text to download the lesson plan and images. Some images or
folders are compressed using Stuffit Deluxe and can be expanded using
Stuffit Expander, free for Windows and Macintosh users from the Aladdin
Systems site. The lesson plans can be viewed by using Adobe Acrobat.
Image
Magic: Do you look like your parents?
How much do you really look like your parents? Begin with an image of
your mother, your father, and yourself, all at about the same age. Line
up your parent's images and use NIH Image's ability to average them.
Then compare this average image to your own and look for the amazing
resemblance! (Activity courtesy of Panan Tantrakul, Eastern Michigan
University).
Dueling Dunks: Measuring the speed of a dunked basketball
Who dunks a basketball the fastest? Is it Michael Jordan (formerly of
the Chicago Bulls,) Antonio McDyess (formerly of the Phoenix Suns) or
someone in a local gym. In this activity you will use NIH Image's
ability to measure distances to determine the answer to this question.
You will analyze video footage downloaded from the NBA's site or
capture video of your own. (Activity courtesy of Dr. Mike Charles,
Eastern Michigan University).
Measuring the area of asymmetry of a Maple Leaf
Does an asymmetrical leaf fall from a maple tree before a more
symmetrical leaf? In this activity you measure the area of a scanned in
leaf. Then you digitally "fold" the leaf in half, and measure the area
of the parts of the leaf that are not symetrical. Perform this same
operation for typical leaves that were collected on five consecutive
days from the same maple tree to determine if more symmetrical leaves
stay on the tree longer. (Activity courtesy of Dr. Mike Charles,
Eastern Michigan University. Original activity idea courtesy of
Catherine Russell, Anderson High School, Southgate, Michigan).
Find the Titanic!
Create an ocean floor surface in a shoebox using salt dough and hide a
plastic model boat on the ocean floor. Create a color-coded contour map
of that surface using a chopstick calibrated into one-centimeter
increments. Make that map into a color-coded contour map of the inside
of the shoebox. Generate a 3-D view of that map using NIH Image
software. (Activity courtesy of Dr. Mike Charles, Eastern Michigan
University).
Making a 3D image of a park
Convert a topographic map of a local park into a 3D image using NIH
Image's ability to project a stack of images. (Activity courtesy of
Kathe Blue Hetter, Community High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan).
More Animal Hands
What animal does this x-ray hand belong to, and why do you think so? In
this introductory biology lesson, you will examine x-rays of hands,
wings, hooves and flippers to compare their structures and functions as
you identify the animal. Image Processing lets you to change the way
the information in the x-rays is displayed, allowing you to see details
you would never see even if you had the original x-ray in hand.
