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Research

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 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.

 

 

 

 

Research identifying students’ conceptual resources for understanding physics

Kinematics

Forces

Linear Momentum

Energy

Circuits

Waves

Heat and Temperature

Research analyzing implementation of ACORN Tutorials

Related research by the development team