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Recognizing the key role of Introduction to Programming in the Computer Science curriculum we wanted to improve the course in ways that will enhance the success of students in the course and the curriculum. To this end, we launched a three year department wide effort in collaboration with the Center for Teaching Innovation. After evaluating a collection of different academic interventions, we adopted Supplemental Instruction and added four new laboratory assignments, based on Finch robots, that have a peer-learning component, inspired from Team-Based Learning. We are currently on the third year of our project. We have been evaluating the impact of our interventions in the course retention and the main learning objectives of the course. Our preliminary results show reduced D/F/W rates and improved overall student achievement in the course.