Refactoring courseware to engage undergraduates in computational thinking across boundaries

There is a growing need to develop courses that demonstrate the articulations between computer science and an array of computing-dependent fields. This hands-on workshop will introduce participants to a model for students and faculty to collaborate across disciplines and with a community organization to develop computational solutions to address complex real-world problems. The strength of this model lies in leveraging existing courses and courseware rather developing new ones. Participants will learn how to develop at their own institutions, similar collaborations that involve computer science, a computing-dependent discipline and a community partner. We will provide access to materials that participants can adapt for their own courses to redesign existing courseware: best practices; pitfalls to be avoided and how to deal with them; instructional materials developed for the courses used in our project; assessment and evaluation instruments developed for the courses used in our project; instructions on adapting the assessment and evaluation instruments for other courses; instructions, documentation, and configuration scripts for using the technology needed for such collaborations. The presenters will share experiences and lead a brainstorming session to design strategies for dealing with challenges and for gaining institutional support for such collaborations. Participants are encouraged to bring their laptops to work on, but this is not required.