Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

7-1-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Curriculum & Instruction

First Advisor

Karin Lewis

Second Advisor

Laura M. Jewett

Third Advisor

Ana Carolina Diaz Beltran

Abstract

Whenever I look at the brilliant faces of my elementary students along the Texas-Mexico border, I see massive potential trapped behind invisible psychological walls. In the Rio Grande Valley, our children are watching a multi-billion-dollar aerospace and tech boom unfold right in their backyards, yet they are routinely left out due to a lack of hands-on technology programs in school. I refuse to let our youth be passive bystanders. To close this gap, I created "The Border Bot Camp," a five-hour pilot program designed to see if building and coding robots could rapidly boost the tech confidence—or self-efficacy—of 10 Hispanic fifth graders.

To make this space welcoming and completely non-intimidating, the students used the LEGO SPIKE Prime robotics platform. Instead of typing complex, frustrating computer text, they plugged physical blocks together and used a visual, block-based coding language to bring their motorized robots and autonomous Formula One racecars to life.

To capture the true magic and data of this journey, I didn’t rely on just one type of measurement. I stepped into the lab as a participant-observer, recording detailed fieldnotes of their team behaviors and mapping their persistence. The students also kept personal engineering journals to sketch their ideas and write down their thoughts. To hear their personal stories, I sat down with every single child for one-on-one, open-ended conversations before and after the camp. Finally, they completed a hard-copy, anonymous survey at the very end to measure their attitudes toward science, technology, engineering, and math.

The students' average engineering confidence scores jumped dramatically, shifting from an initial pre-camp mindset of doubt to a triumphant post-camp level of absolute belief. This study serves as a joyful, justice-oriented blueprint for our community. It shows that when we design spaces that honor our youth's names, dual languages, and heritage, we can turn traditional tech anxiety into resilient excitement and give their voices wings.

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Copyright 2026 Ruby Katalina Rivera. All Rights Reserved. https://proquest.com/docview/3408953645

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