Critical Thinking 00: Asking Good Questions
Due: 2026 Sep 22, 11:59pm
This critical thinking assignment is designed to encourage you to understand and apply a skill to different areas of your life.
You will have your own fork of a repo with a single readme.md file.
Simply edit this file.
Only one person in your group is required to submit anything.
Just be sure to include everyone's full name in the readme.md.
Collaboration
This is a small group project of no more than three, although you can work on it individually.
The table below provides the acceptable level of collaboration for this project.
| group | peers† | ai | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| understand | ✔ |
✔ |
✗ |
may work with peers† to understand the problem. |
| develop | ✔ |
✔ |
✗ |
may work with a peer† to "whiteboard" a solution |
| write | ✔ |
✗ |
✗ |
writing code and text must be done by group |
| debug | ✔ |
✗ |
✔ |
debugging done by group; may use AI (fix grammar) |
Peer†
In the table above, the checkmarks under the peer† column are limited to other students currently enrolled in COS265. You are not allowed to work with anybody outside this course, such as a roommate, someone online, past students, etc.
You may always get help from any of the instructional staff (Instructor, TAs) or any CSE Helpdesk tutor who is able to help with COS265.
Note
You are welcome to invite the other students in your small group as Developer member, so everyone can edit a single readme.md.
Requirements
In a small group of no more than three:
-
Write a response to each of the following points.
-
Find a Bible passage where a character either uses this critical thinking skill properly (positive example) or does not use this skill at a detriment (negative example). Provide the context for the situation and explain how your example meets the requirements above.
-
Explain a situation in the recent past where one in your group or someone you know used this skill to solve a computer science related problem in a positive way.
-
Explain a situation in the recent past where one in your group or someone you know used this skill to solve a "real life" problem (not related to computer science) in a positive way.
-
-
For each point above, include and clearly indicate the good question that was asked (positive example) or the good question that should have been asked (negative example). One way to clearly indicate is to highlight the question by using alerts. See Tips below for an example.
-
For each point above, include and clearly indicate which hats are worn. See Tips below for a review.
-
Discuss what you gained by going through this exercise. I'm leaving this open-ended, but I do expect your group to provide a thoughtful response. Note: you can always learn something, even when doing something you've done a million times before.
-
Include a list of group members at the top of your submission.
Full credit will go to responses that use good grammar, are well thought out, and construct an argument using sufficient evidence. I have no hard rule on length; use as many words as necessary and no more.
Remember
Your job is to convince me that you know what you are talking about!
Tips #
Remember, Good Questions often start with the following openers.
| When would ... |
| How would ... |
| What are ... |
| Why is ... |
| Who would ... |
| Where would ... |
Also, Good Questions often force you to wear multiple hats.🧢
| 🧢 | White | What information is needed? |
| 🧢 | Yellow | What is going well? |
| 🧢 | Black | What is not working well? |
| 🧢 | Green | How can things be improved? |
| 🧢 | Red | What are you passionate about? |
One simple way to indicate clearly the good question is to use an alert. For example, the snippet on the left will render similarly to the figure on the right.
> [!note] Good Question > The question Abraham should have asked was "...". |
Good Question
The question Abraham should have asked was "...".
|
You do not need to clone your fork.
Instead, you can edit the readme.md file directly in the browser by clicking on the readme.md file, click the blue Edit button at the top, then click Edit single file.
Submission
Once you have completed the assignment requirements, simply stage, commit, and push your changes to the CSE GitLab. Note: you do not need to do these if you edit through the browser.
Do NOT submit anything to the course Brightspace page.
Grading Rubric
| Applications | |
| 3pts | Point 1 (Bible passage) is thoughtfully answered |
| 3pts | Point 2 (CS-related) is thoughtfully answered |
| 3pts | Point 3 ("Real Life") is thoughtfully answered |
| Writing | |
| 3pts | Well organized, complete sentences with good grammar |
| 3pts | Good Questions clearly indicated |
| 3pts | Hats clearly indicated |
| 3pts | Thoughtful discussion over exercise |