To learn more, see instructor resources.

ACORN Physics Tutorials support learning environments that Attend to Conceptual Resources in Physics. Conceptual resources are potentially generative student ideas: “seeds of science” that can grow toward sophisticated understandings with support and cultivation. ACORN Physics Tutorials support students to construct their own models for physics concepts. Students engage in three main activities as they iteratively build a model they can use to explain and predict phenomena:

• Gather: Students respond to conceptual physics questions that research has shown to consistently elicit generative student ideas about specific physics topics (e.g., wave propagation, dc circuit behavior, collisions).
• Articulate: Students express their ideas more formally, often as a set of rules.  
• Apply: Students apply and test their models for a phenomenon.

How do I implement ACORN Physics Tutorials?

• Use these tutorials in person or in synchronous online classes in a 50-90 minute period.
• Arrange for students to work on the worksheets collaboratively in groups of 3-4.
• Plan for intermittent but regular instructor engagement with every group: If possible, there should be one instructor for every 2-4 student groups. Near-peer facilitators (LAs or TAs) are helpful. 
• Instructors should prepare for both the general approach taken by the worksheet and the specific worksheet questions in a preparation session that takes place before class.
• The worksheet should not be graded, so that students can explore a variety of ideas without feeling pressure to get the right answer. 

What should I expect students to do during an ACORN Physics Tutorial, and how can I help?

• Students will generate many novel ideas and questions. Instructors can:
• Notice and elevate their original ideas and questions.
• Revoice their ideas and questions back them.
• Ask clarifying questions to help them connect the dots.
• Students will experience vexation points, “critical moment[s] when they articulate an inconsistency or gap in their understanding that kicks off the sensemaking frame.” (Odden & Russ 2018) Instructors can:
• Suggest analogies, thought experiments, and contrasting cases to support students’ sensemaking process.
• Choose questions or observations to elicit additional conceptual resources that are fruitful for the context. (Particular ideas, representations, or experiments discussed in previous class sessions, etc.)
• Students will be motivated to answer their novel questions, but will find this challenging. Instructors can:
• Suggest ways students can refine their question to be answerable within the scope of the knowledge and equipment they have access to.
• Suggest experiments to test/explore students’ questions.
• Students will wonder whether their ideas are idiosyncratic or shared. Instructors can:
• Encourage students to share ideas with each other.
• Facilitate sharing by asking questions about how students’ ideas connect to one another.
• Connect students’ own ideas or models with canonical models and concepts.

What do students get out of the ACORN Physics Tutorials? What are the specific concepts my students will know after completing an ACORN Physics Tutorial?

Topic-specific instructor guides that answer these questions for each tutorial can be found under the “Materials” tab. 

Can I see an ACORN Physics Tutorial in action?

These short video clips and training lessons can give instructors a sense of how students learn with ACORN Physics Tutorials. Watch the short video clips to understand what student might do and discuss, and use the sample discussion prompts to prepare yourself to teach with these Tutorials.  

What enables students to answer their own questions?

How do students build new ideas?

Should I help students solve problems efficiently?

What materials come with ACORN Physics Tutorials?

• Worksheets for students (editable and pdf)
• Instructor guides, including common student ideas about each physics topic
• Periscope video lessons for instructor training, highlighting how ACORN Physics tutorials elicit student thinking about specific topics and illustrating instructor moves that effectively support students’ progress

How does an ACORN Physics Tutorial work?

ACORN Physics Tutorials guide students through the process of developing a model, or set of rules, that explain observations and make predictions for a particular concept. Small groups of students work through a series of questions to prompt their thinking. Throughout the worksheet, they are asked to keep track of the central ideas and concepts that they use to explain and predict by writing ideas and rules in a model-building box. By the end of the worksheet, each student’s model-building box should contain a self-consistent model that explains the results of the experiments students have analyzed. The goal is for each student to develop a consistent set of rules, not for all students to develop the same set of rules. Rules may be simple or complex.

Example model-building box completed by a student:

These tutorials ask students three different types of questions:

1. Explain/represent questions tell students the result of an experiment or a law of physics and then ask them to generate ideas to explain why that is the result. They may also ask students to represent their thinking—or the phenomenon they’ve just explained—using diagrams or other representations. Students may be given a series of experiments where small changes are made, and asked to generate multiple explanations and refine their ideas based on these.

These questions elicit students’ ideas about key physics phenomena. Starting with the result rather than a prediction provides opportunities for students to be right and to practice using tools to represent their own thinking. Students’ representations provide opportunities for instructors to quickly visualize how students are thinking.

2. Predict questions ask students to use the ideas they’ve generated so far to predict an outcome of a new scenario. Students are not asked to predict until they are likely to have enough of a model to predict correctly.

These questions give students practice applying their model and make visible places where the model needs to be refined.

3. Model questions ask students to synthesize and connect the particular ideas they have been working with, with the ideas they have in their model-building box. 

These questions guide students toward a consistent conceptual model for the set of phenomena presented in the worksheet.

What do I do to help students as they work through the Tutorials? 

This talk moves flow chart outlines strategies for instructors to use to understand and nurture students’ ideas for each type of question in ACORN Physics Tutorials:

How do I integrate ACORN Physics Tutorials with other teaching materials?

ACORN Physics Tutorials are meant to be integrated with other teaching materials (including materials developed by instructors and other research-based instructional materials), and our development team encourages instructors to do this in the way that makes most sense for their unique classrooms. In our own introductory physics courses, we have used ACORN Physics Tutorials in place of other research-based physics worksheets  Often we follow up an ACORN Physics Tutorial with a selection of questions or another worksheet from another set of teaching materials that builds on the ideas students developed in the ACORN Physics Tutorial. 

How long does it take for students to complete an ACORN Physics Tutorial?

ACORN Physics Tutorials are designed to be used in a single 50-90 minute class session. The time it takes a group of students to complete a worksheet can depend on how much experimentation and sensemaking the group pursues and how much instructional support is available (e.g., TAs or LAs). In longer class sessions, students are likely to have time to consider some follow-up challenge problems (chosen by the instructor), while in shorter class sessions challenge questions can be given on homework and/or in a subsequent lecture. 

Where do I find the answer keys for the ACORN Physics Tutorial questions?

We do not provide answer keys to ACORN Physics Tutorials because most of the questions in each Tutorial are open-ended and have more than one correct (or productive, even if incomplete or incorrect) answer. ACORN Physics Tutorials are designed to elicit a variety of responses to each question, and instructors' attention to this variety is important for accomplishing the learning goals of each tutorial. The purpose of ACORN Physics Tutorials is to leverage students’ own ideas, and instructors should support students to test and refine their own answers using experiments, counterexamples, and scientific argumentation amongst peers. You can find example student responses to some key questions in each ACORN Physics Tutorial under the “Conceptual Questions” tab and example models that students have articulated after doing the Tutorials in the Instructor Guide for each Tutorial (available on the individual Tutorial page). 

How are ACORN Physics Tutorials different from other research-based tutorials?

Like other research-based instructional strategies in physics, ACORN Physics Tutorials are based on common student ideas about specific physics topics, and have been tested and validated in undergraduate physics classrooms. (for more information about our team’s research on common student ideas and testing of ACORN Physics Tutorials, visit the Research page).  

Unlike some research-based instructional strategies, ACORN Physics Tutorials are designed to target students’ common fruitful ideas about physics phenomena, rather than common difficulties or misconceptions. ACORN Physics Tutorials are also designed to prioritize sensemaking around students’ emerging ideas, experimentation, and scientific model building, rather than tightly-specified content learning goals. The table below highlights some of these differences: 

Why should I use ACORN Physics Tutorials in my class, instead of what I am currently using?

ACORN Physics Tutorials may be a great option for your introductory physics class if you are looking:

• To facilitate more student-directed sensemaking and encourage students to engage in the process of building a scientific model of their own. ACORN Physics Tutorials can support sensemaking and model building with open-ended scaffolding for student inquiry and discussion. 
• For flexible, adaptable instructional materials that can be integrated with physics simulations, experiments, or demonstrations. ACORN Physics Tutorials are designed to facilitate student-directed experimentation with simulations (such as PhET simulations) and hands-on experiments.
• To incorporate more teaching practices that encourage students’ agency; highlight the fruitful ideas in students’ own thinking; and facilitate frequent, responsive formative assessment.

Are there more ACORN Physics Tutorials under development? 

We are not currently developing more ACORN Physics Tutorials. However, it is our goal that the existing Tutorials, along with the information provided in the facilitator guide, can be used as a model for instructors to make their own ACORN-like instructional materials for other topics. For more information about our design process and strategies, see “How does an ACORN Physics Tutorial work?” in the Facilitator Guide above. 

Do students like working through the ACORN Physics Tutorials?

In general, we find that students experience excitement, frustration, and have “aha! moments,” like they do when learning with other small-group activities or tutorials. ACORN Physics Tutorials encourage experimentation (often virtually with simulations like PhET Interactive Simulations), which students often find fun and rewarding. 

Current Team Members

	Amy Robertson (she/her, PI, Seattle Pacific University) is a Research Professor and physics education researcher with a strong interest in cultivating liberatory classroom and professional spaces.  In her work, Amy roots herself in a variety of methodological tools, disciplinary and interdisciplinary collaborations, and her lived experience as a disabled and chronically ill physicist. Her research focuses on university students’ conceptual resources for learning physics and how frameworks from equity and justice can help physicists become more critically conscious. She is a proud puppy mama, a disabled hiker, and an avid crafter.
	Paula Heron (she/her, PI, University of Washington) is a Professor of Physics at the University of Washington. She has been engaged in physics education research with a focus on improving student conceptual understanding and reasoning ability for nearly 30 years.  She is involved in a number of international organizations and collaborations in PER and has been recognized by awards from the American Physical Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers. Dr. Heron is an Associate Editor of Physical Review Physics Education Research.
	Rachel Scherr (she/her, co-PI, University of Washington) is an Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Washington Bothell. A longtime physics education researcher, she has a special interest in educator development, including physics faculty, K-12 teachers, graduate teaching assistants, and undergraduate learning assistants. Dr. Scherr is the producer of Periscope Video Lessons.
	Raphael Mondesir (he/his, co-PI, Seattle Pacific University) is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Seattle Pacific University. As a quantitative sociologist, Dr. Mondesir utilizes a variety of methods to study the intersection of community development, civic participation, and religious pluralism in the Global South. His special interest in civic cultures and social networks often inform his teaching and how he builds relationships with his students. Dr. Mondesir spends his weekends playing soccer or hiking.
	Lisa Goodhew (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Seattle Pacific University. Her research focuses on university students’ conceptual resources for understanding physics and supporting instructors in effectively leveraging these resources. Dr. Goodhew’s favorite part of her work is getting to know and learn with students in and out of the physics classroom, and she is excited by the ways this research makes her a better teacher.
	Lauren Bauman (she/her) is a research coordinator at the University of Washington Seattle. She first became interested in physics education research while learning physics as an undergraduate and is particularly interested in effectively creating empowering, equitable, and supportive educational spaces that authentically center students' ideas. Most of her research focuses on analyzing written data to identify students' conceptual resources.
	Anne Alesandrini (they/them and she/her) is a current graduate student with the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington and a former public high school teacher. Their research interests include student explanations and educator development, and they spend a lot of time thinking about the interactions between education, science, and society. They find joy wandering around outside with their kids looking at plants.
	Al Snow (they/them) is a graduate student in Physics at the University of Washington. They are currently working on classroom discussion video analysis and pretest response analysis. Al enjoys reading and writing, as well as listening to and performing music.
	Sam McKagan (she/her) is the creator and director of PhysPort, a website that supports physics faculty in research-based teaching and hosts open-source curricular materials, including the ACORN Tutorials. She has conducted research into physics faculty members’ and department heads’ needs around research-based teaching and assessment, and conducted several meta-analyses of the impact of research-based teaching in physics. For this project, Sam worked with Adrian to design the ACORNS Tutorials website on PhysPort, and helped analyze interviews with faculty.
	Adrian Madsen (she/her) is the assistant director of PhysPort, a website that supports physics faculty in research-based teaching and hosts open-source curricular materials, including the ACORN Tutorials. She has conducted research into physics faculty members’ and department heads’ needs around research-based teaching and assessment, and conducted several meta-analyses of the impact of research-based teaching in physics. For this project, Adrian worked with Sam to design the ACORNS Tutorials website on PhysPort, and helped analyze interviews with faculty.

Team Alumni

	Yohannes M. Abraham (he/him) is a former undergraduate cellular and molecular biology student at Seattle Pacific University interested in STEM teaching and learning as well as the medical field. He joined physics research to better understand why students’ have common conceptual misconceptions about physics and how to address these difficulties with a resource-oriented teaching and learning approach. He plans to work in a biology laboratory and wishes to attend medical school in the future. During his free time, he loves to play soccer, try different cuisines, and read Italian classic books.
	Cheyenne Broadfoot is a graduate from University of Washington Bothell with a B.S. in Physics and is currently pursuing a M.S. in Coastal Zone Management and Marine Conservation from University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. She has a passion for learning and wants to use the acquired knowledge to work for an organization addressing wastewater and pollution in third world countries, specifically Costa Rica.
	Beth Gallatin is a former undergraduate student at South Puget Sound Community College studying computer science. She joined the physics education research project to help develop a deeper understanding of students' conceptual resources and begin exploring strategies to create a more inclusive and diverse society of physicists. She is currently participating in research for the LIGO Collaboration working on the search for continuous wave gravitational radiation. She loves thinking and wondering about gravity, and the role it plays in our understanding of the universe. She has a persistently curious mind, and plans to focus on a career that bridges scientific resources, nature, and humanity.
	Jon Geiger is a graduate of Seattle Pacific University, where he received degrees in Physics, Applied Mathematics, and Honors Liberal Arts. He served as a Learning Assistant for three years, and has worked with the team on a project investigating the utility of natural language processing in characterizing students’ conceptual resources in physics.
	Brynna Hansen is a former undergraduate student studying Cellular and Molecular Biology at Seattle Pacific University, and does physics education research as a side hobby! She hopes to attend medical school following graduation. Outside of school Brynna loves to read, exercise and spend time with loved ones.
	Tra Huynh (she/her) is a former postdoctoral scholar at University of Washington Bothell. She is a physics education researcher and she has been conducting qualitative research on faculty and student professional development and equity education through multiple lenses of methodology and theories. She loves creating ideas with people and turning them into research. She is an aspiring knitter and baker.
	Katie Marvin is a graduate of UW Bothell with a BS in physics. Before becoming a student, she was a dog trainer who taught large classes to the general public. Her experience in behavioral training, communication, and observation served her well as she worked her way through an associate's degree at South Seattle College. These same skills would prove useful when she was encouraged to join the physics education research project for her independent research credits. She has a passion for learning, teaching, and bringing out the best in others. After graduating she landed a job within the semiconductor industry. She plans to become a physics instructor someday after she has gained some real world application experience. With the free time she has, she likes to practice her woodwind instruments, hike, play retro games, and hang out with her dog, Zac.
	Clausell Mathis is a former postdoctoral scholar in physics at the University of Washington - Seattle. Clausell has been engaging in physics education research over the past 4 years with a focus on understanding how physics instructors can incorporate culture-based equitable approaches to teaching from a curriculum development, student learning, and teacher identity lens.
	Jon Owen (he/him) is a former undergraduate student in physics at Seattle Pacific University. He is works to analyze videos of classrooms using ACORN Physics tutorials to understand how students’ conceptual resources are activated and refined.
	Olin Sorby is a former Undergraduate student studying Applied Physics and Norwegian language at the University of Washington. He worked with Tra on identifying conceptual resources in kinematics, pertaining to productive use of force reasoning in kinematics problems.
	Marcella Su (she/her) is a graduate of the University of Washington Bothell with a B.S in Biochemistry and a minor in Health Studies. She is pursuing medicine to become a doctor. She believes that research is essential to medicine in order to propel the field of medicine to create effective treatments for the members of our community. She hopes to practice and provide quality care for her community after medical school, as closing the gap between ethnic and marginalized groups is a core passion of hers. She is currently a Research Assistant at Veterans Affairs, Seattle Epidemiologic Research and Information Center. During her time off she helps her family in residential housing management, volunteers at International District Emergency Center, located in Seattle’s Chinatown, and does sewing with a sewing machine to help tailor clothing for family and friends.
	Andrea Wooley (she/her) is a former undergraduate physics student at Western Washington University with experience in physics education research and Mossbauer spectroscopy. The culture of physics is central to her research interests, in particular she is passionate about issues about justice, equity, inclusion and diversity. She’s a transfer student from South Seattle College where she studied students’ perspectives of physics in addition to working as a tutor and peer navigator. She spends her weekends hiking in Larabee state park, playing pool and taking care of her house rabbit, Monty.

ACORN Physics Tutorials are developed iteratively, in conversation with research:

Researchers from our team first use student written responses to conceptual questions to identify specific, common conceptual resources for understanding a particular topic. This research shapes the initial design of an ACORN Physics Tutorial, which elicits and then builds from identified conceptual resources, toward models, mechanisms, and concepts. These tutorials are then implemented in focus groups or classrooms, where students are video-recorded as they learn. Video analysis identifies ways in which the tutorial is working or not working as planned – or working well in unexpected ways – and this analysis then shapes the refinement of the materials. Often materials iterate through this process multiple times before being shared more broadly.