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The purpose of this article is to contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning in sociology by examining a set of course redesign improvements made in a Social Problems course at the undergraduate level. These improvements center on increasing students’ critical thinking skills by integrating research-based, innovation-driven learning and student-centered strategies into a four-part course assessment redesign. Using a primarily case study approach, we examine quantitative data in the form of an interdisciplinary pre- and post- Critical thinking Assessment Test (CAT) from students enrolled in one iteration of the redesign for this particular course. Results from this analysis highlight the potential of these pedagogical improvements to foster the development of critical thinking skills and as an example of how assessment data can be used to guide further iterations of a course. 

Parallel and Distributed Computing (PDC) has become pervasive and is now exercised on a variety of platforms. Therefore, understanding how parallelism and distributed computing affect problem solving is important for every computing and engineering professional. However, most students in computer science (CS) and computer engineering (CE) programs are still introduced to computational problem solving using an old model, in which all processing is serial and synchronous, with input and output via text using a terminal interface or a local file system. Teaching a range of PDC knowledge and skills at multiple levels in Computer Science (CS) and related Computing and Engineering curricula is essential. The challenges are significant and numerous. Although some progress has been made in terms of curriculum recommendations and educational resources in computer science, trained faculty, motivation, and inertia are still some of the major impediments to introducing PDC early in computing curricula. The authors of this paper conducted a series of week-long faculty training workshops on the integration of PDC topics in CS1 and CS2 classes, and this paper provides an experience report on the impact and effectiveness of these workshops. Our survey results indicate such faculty development workshops can be effective in gradual inclusion of PDC in early computing curricula. 

This paper shares the analysis of our quantitative findings regarding the impact of a virtual informal collaborative experiential learning activity on diverse students' computational thinking, critical thinking, and self-efficacy in STEM activities. Designed as part of an ongoing National Science Foundation sponsored project to provide underrepresented minority (URM) students from underserved economic backgrounds with real-world career preparation and technical education across disciplines through collaborative project activities using cutting-edge technologies, the Hackathon for Social Good was implemented during the COVID-19 shutdowns in a New York City community college in lower Manhattan. Students worked in teams to innovate practical solutions to global problems with mentor support from both academia and the tech industry. This intervention drew 36 students from Computer Science, Business, and Sociology classes, who worked with volunteers and alumni during a full-day event in the Fall of 2021, using AI and data science to design culturally sensitive data-driven solutions for real-world problems. The tracks covered the following topics: Zero Hunger, Clean Water, and Sanitation, Green Consumption, Racial Justice, Quality Education, Good Health, and Well Being. The two main objectives of this project are as follows: (1) Design a remote interdisciplinary one-day experiential collaborative learning environment to engage URM teams of students from a community college in applying computational thinking to develop solutions for social good. (2) Conduct research on our intervention to study its effect on students' self-efficacy, as well as their knowledge of, and comfort with, computational thinking, critical thinking, problem-solving, and STEM. The evidence gathered from qualitative and quantitative data indicates that using these mechanisms to infuse CT into student learning across disciplines has several positive outcomes. Students reported increased leadership skills, comfort with teamwork, problem-solving, and critical thinking. A quantitative study specifically showed a positive impact on student confidence in their ability to do CT and improved their sense of efficacy in impacting the world outside of the hackathon.