Science Coming soon
Physics Path
A diagnostic that will find where each student’s understanding of motion, forces, energy and waves breaks down, and build the path forward.
The problem
Where physics understanding breaks down
Physics asks students to connect ideas, models and math at once. A student who struggles with momentum might be missing how forces work; one who struggles with circuits might be missing what energy transfer means.
- A low test score doesn’t show whether the gap is physics or math.
- Everyday intuitions about motion can survive a correct formula.
- Gaps in early units make every later unit harder.
Inside the Path
What the Physics Path covers
The Physics Path will cover the NGSS physical science standards that shape a physics course: forces and motion, momentum, gravitational and electromagnetic interactions, energy and its conservation, and waves, including electromagnetic radiation and how waves carry information.
Where students get stuck
Some of the most persistent misconceptions come from everyday experience: believing a moving object needs a constant force to keep moving, that heavier objects fall faster, that current is used up as it flows around a circuit, and that energy and force are the same thing. Students can apply the right formula while still holding these ideas.
What it does for you
What this Path will do
For teachers
Will separate physics gaps from math gaps, and tag each wrong answer to the misconception behind it.
More for teachersFor school leaders
Will give Physics students a skill path that starts at their own gap.
More for school leadersFor districts
Will extend one diagnostic method across science courses, built on NGSS.
More for districtsHow it works
How the Path will work
Diagnose
An adaptive diagnostic will move across the physical science standards, choosing each question from the answers so far.
Trace
Answers will be traced back through physics ideas, and the math they depend on, to the point where understanding breaks down.
Rebuild
Students will get a skill path that starts at their gap.
Standards
Will be built on published standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
The Physics Path will be built on the Next Generation Science Standards for the physical sciences.
The science
The method behind every Path
Item Response Theory
Each student’s ability is estimated from their answers, and each next question is the one expected to tell the most.
Prerequisite maps
Standards are mapped as a graph of which skills build on which, so a gap can be traced to where it starts.
Misconception tagging
Wrong answer choices are written to reveal specific misconceptions, from a controlled catalog.
Research
The research behind this Path
These published studies are about how students learn, not about SubjectPath itself.
Posner and colleagues’ model of conceptual change proposes that students give up an existing idea when they become dissatisfied with it and a new idea seems understandable, plausible and able to explain more.
Posner et al. (1982)Hestenes, Wells and Swackhamer reported that students’ commonsense beliefs about force and motion conflict with Newtonian ideas in most respects, and they developed an inventory for detecting those beliefs.
Hestenes et al. (1992)
Help shape the Physics Path
Tell us about your courses and students, and which of your classes the Physics Path would serve. We’d like to hear what it should do first.
Tell us you’re interestedFrequently asked questions
- Will it include the math physics depends on?
- Yes. The Physics Path will trace gaps into the math skills physics relies on, like proportional reasoning and algebra.
- When will it be available?
- We don’t publish dates. Tell us about your timeline and we’ll talk it through.
- Can we help shape it?
- Yes. Tell us about your courses and students. We’d like to hear what you need from it.
Talk to us about the Physics Path
See Algebra Readiness in a demo today, and tell us what you need from this Path.