**4. Methodology**

The La Frontera mobile STEM program is addressing the following question: How does informal learning through mobile makerspace pop-up activities impact selfefficacy of URM undergraduate students and STEM faculty from isolated communities? The La Frontera Mobile Makerspace pilot project provides for the delivery of makerspace workshops and speakers from STEM industries and STEM organizations using either a mobile lab or a makerspace classroom in which pop-up activities allow for personalized expressions of interests and values of faculty, promoting higher engagement and interest. The La Frontera Mobile STEM program works in conjunction with the Noyce en la Frontera National Science foundation Track 1 program, which provides scholarships to math and biology majors seeking a teaching certification at the middle school or high school level. Both programs represent a collaborative partnership with a local community college, surrounding high needs K12 schools located on the Texas Mexico border, the Science Mill Museum, and additional community outreach programs. The Noyce en la Frontera program pairs URM preservice STEM teacher with a highly qualified STEM mentor teacher or faculty member. The program provides faculty development toward becoming a mentor, culturally responsive teaching approaches, and digital literacy training incorporating the Universal Design for Learning framework and employs tactile technologies to assist preservice teachers in their self-efficacy of teaching with technology using informal learning popup activities through the mobile program. The program introduces preservice

teachers, other educators, and mentors to the possibilities of incorporating stronger digital learning approaches to improve engagement and expression of knowledge. After participating in a series of workshops, Noyce scholars along with mentors utilize the mobile STEM program with collaborative schools or public libraries located in isolated areas along the southwest between El Paso and Eagle Pass, a 400-mile or 640-kilometer area. The La Frontera program financially supports faculty development by providing stipends to faculty and K12 certified secondary educators enrolled in a mentoring program to lead co-developed makerspace mobile events, lectures, and workshops. Mentoring is facilitated through a partnership between STEM and Education faculty at both the university and community college; the Science Mill Museum; and the Texas Workforce Commission. Program activities have been designed to address future-ready skills and to address achievement gaps by improving relationships between STEM K-12 programs, community college STEM student populations, STEM majors attending the university, faculty teaching STEM or STEM related topics and industry in rural Southwest Texas.

The La Frontera pilot program hypothesizes that facilitating improved faculty development that is focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) intervention approaches using an informal learning creative space will serve to improve retention, self-efficacy, STEM identity, and values of undergraduate STEM preservice teachers and STEM faculty as measured by the Teacher Beliefs and Attitudes Toward STEM (T-STEM) Survey pre to post using Qualtrics [22]. The TPSA C-21 is used to measure the impact of technology integration training on teacher self-efficacy, investigating six factors: Email, World Wide Web, Integrated Applications, Teaching with Technology, Emerging Technologies, for Student Learning, and Emerging Technologies for Teacher Development, and reports a Chronbach's Alpha between .75 and 1.00, with .88 reported for the entire scale [23–25]. The TPSA-C-21 is a 34 item survey used for Miller's NASA funded Makers' Guild program, which reported that makerspace development significantly impacted teachers' self-efficacy (p < .05) in emerging technologies and teacher professional development programs [11].

In addition, activities focused on investing in faculty development that integrates DEI to improve culturally responsive intervention would increase self-efficacy of STEM faculty to integrate technology in STEM content courses as measured by Technology Proficiency Self-Assessment for twenty-first Century Learning (TPSA C-21) [22]. Faculty and STEM preservice teachers participating in the makerspace workshop development receive training in Culturally Responsive Intervention, Emerging Technologies to Support Teaching and Learning, and Project Based-Learning through Makerspace Pop-Up Activities. The mentor program includes faculty development focused on the following topics through a face-to-face summer training program and additional online training made available through Canvas: Advancing Equity & Inclusion, Cultural Literacy in Teaching and Learning, The Importance of Family Support, Resources for Makerspace Mentoring Programs, and Incorporating Digital Techniques in Teaching STEM. Extended faculty development is offered within the mobile program that incorporates advanced technology to include virtual reality, augmented reality, robotics, artificial intelligence, social media, creation technologies, and fabrication technologies.

Data is collected using Qualtrics to include the following evaluation components: makerspace participant surveys, TPSA C-21 preservice and mentor pre to posttest survey responses, T-STEM preservice and mentor pre to posttest survey, Culturally Responsive Teaching survey pre to posttest survey response, attendance, STEM enrollment in the teacher preparation program, retention rates, and graduation

*Enhancing Educators' Cultural and Digital Literacies through Makerspace Development Activities DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112613*

rates [21, 22, 24–26]. Pretest data collection of preservice and mentor participants is administered during an orientation session prior to receiving training and participating in makerspace activities over a 2 year period of time. During the last semester of the 2-year program, posttest data collection of preservice and mentor participants occurs during an exit interview.
