Diagnostic · Kinematics & graphs
Motion Diagnostic
Maps what position, displacement, distance, velocity and acceleration mean to your students, from graph reading to turning points, and shows which misreading to address first.
IB DP · AP · A-Level · GCSE / IGCSE
2
Forms
54
Questions
~25 + 30–35
Minutes
18 + bridge
Bands
FundaFirst HS diagnostics have run in classrooms at 10 schools · 9 countries · 3 continents
The wrong ideas come from physics education research, which has recorded them since the 1970s: Viennot, Trowbridge & McDermott, Arons, Hestenes, Maloney. The physics comes from Arons, Knight, Moore, and Chabay & Sherwood.
“I carried out a pilot test of the Physics Misconceptions Diagnostics with my Grade 11 (lower 6th) International Baccalaureate classes, as part of their revision for end of year exams. The tests covered Motion Foundations, Forces and Free-Body Diagrams - topics that are fundamental to the IB course as well as A’ level courses.
The tests were all set up by FundaFirst - all I had to do was point the students to web links. The students found the questions easy to access and to carry out. The information that came back from FundaFirst was incredibly useful, identifying areas where the class and/or individuals were weaker. These areas would have been much harder to identify without the tests. FundaFirst then provided concrete examples of how to address the misconceptions, with work sheets targeting these areas.
I will not hesitate to use FundaFirst’s diagnostic testing with future cohorts!”
Dr Tim Short, Physics Teacher, ACS International School Egham
What it maps
Two diagnostics. Run one, or run both.
Motion Foundations
Position, displacement & velocity
The first layer of kinematics. It finds the wrong ideas about what position, displacement, distance and velocity mean, before acceleration is introduced.
Covers events and coordinate systems, position and displacement, and distance against displacement on out-and-back paths. Also average and instantaneous velocity, reading x–t graphs, and estimation and unit-rate sense. Eight misconception bands, E1 to E8.
24 questions · 8 bands · ~25 min
Motion Change
Acceleration, turning points & motion diagrams
The second layer. It finds the wrong ideas about acceleration as a vector and about signs. It also covers the link between the position, velocity and acceleration graphs, and carrying the ideas into two dimensions.
Covers velocity against its signed component, acceleration as Δv/Δt, and turning points where v is zero and a is not. Also the sign of acceleration, the Trowbridge and McDermott comparison, motion diagrams, and the x, v and a graph chain. Also when constant acceleration applies, limited transfer to two dimensions, problem boundaries, and one bridge item to Newton. Ten scored bands, M1 to M10, plus the T1 bridge.
30 questions · 10 bands + T1 bridge · ~30–35 min
A question from it
The wrong answers below are not slips. Students give them for the same reasons, class after class.
Higher on the graph means faster
Show students a position against time graph where the curve is high but flat. Many say the object is moving fast. They have read position as velocity. This graph-reading error is one of the most common in kinematics, and it survives teaching.
A velocity of minus 5 m/s must be a mistake
A student works out a velocity and gets −5 m/s. They decide the working must be wrong, because speed cannot be negative. The minus sign is information. The object is moving in the negative x direction at 5 m/s. Losing the sign is one of the most common gaps in kinematics.
Zero velocity at the top means zero acceleration
Throw a ball straight up. At the highest point its velocity is zero for an instant. Ask students for the acceleration at that instant and many answer zero. They have tied a = 0 to v = 0. Gravity has not switched off, and this is one of the most heavily documented misconceptions in kinematics.
Same final speed means same acceleration
Two cars start from rest and reach the same final speed. Car A takes 10 seconds and Car B takes 5 seconds. Many students say the accelerations are equal because the final speeds match. For straight-line motion in the same direction, Car B’s average acceleration is twice as large.
How it runs
Students use one shared link and need no logins.
Two diagnostics, each a single sitting. Foundations has 24 questions in about 25 minutes. Change has 30 questions in about 30–35 minutes. Run one, or both.
The report arrives within 48 hours of your class finishing.
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Arons, Knight, Trowbridge & McDermott and Beichner document the misconceptions. Chabay & Sherwood supply the physics treatment.