FundaFirst HS is building the diagnostic layer that physics departments worldwide are missing. Research-backed tools that surface the exact misconceptions students hold — and a structured arc of courses to systematically eliminate them, across IB, AP, A-Level, and GCSE Physics.
Students who score well on formula-based tests often perform worst on conceptual questions. They can calculate without understanding. They don't know what they don't know — and neither do their teachers, until exam results arrive.
Decades of physics education research document persistent misconceptions that survive conventional teaching. Students learn v = d/t but can't distinguish average from instantaneous velocity on a graph. The formula hides the failure.
Most physics departments lack tools to systematically surface misconceptions before summative assessments. Teachers discover gaps too late — through exam results instead of targeted diagnostics.
We don't start with the right answers. We start with the wrong ones — because that's where real learning begins. Our approach is grounded in standardised diagnostic instruments like the FCI and TUG-K, and three decades of published physics education research — not opinion.
Every module in the FundaFirst HS arc uses the same rigorous framework: diagnose the specific misconception, create cognitive conflict that destabilizes it, then rebuild understanding from operational definitions and first principles. The traps we target are documented across multiple research traditions — from Trowbridge & McDermott's position-velocity confusion studies to Hestenes' Force Concept Inventory and beyond.
Carefully designed diagnostic assessments surface the specific misconceptions a student holds — not just whether they got the answer right, but which wrong mental model they're using. Students are mapped to diagnostic bands with targeted intervention pathways.
We present scenarios designed to make the misconception fail. When a student's wrong model produces an absurd prediction, the cognitive conflict creates genuine readiness for the correct concept. This is trap-first teaching — it works because it respects how minds actually change.
Only after the old model is destabilized do we introduce operational definitions and correct frameworks. Students build understanding from first principles — not from memorized formulas, but from deeply held intuition about what concepts actually mean.
Every module follows the same research-backed framework: diagnose, confront, reconstruct. As the arc progresses, students build an interconnected understanding of physics — not a collection of disconnected formulas, but a coherent picture of how the physical world works.
The foundation — operational definitions, displacement, velocity, and the traps that live in kinematics.
Extending the arc into dynamics — where misconceptions multiply.
Our assessments map the specific misconceptions each student holds, sorted into diagnostic bands with clear intervention pathways your department can act on immediately.
Students take a 15–20 minute online diagnostic (just a shared link — no accounts, no installs). You receive a class-level misconception heatmap showing exactly where understanding breaks down.
Every diagnostic question and intervention is grounded in published physics education research (FCI/TUG-K, Arons, Knight, Trowbridge & McDermott). This is a structured conceptual intervention informed by decades of cognitive science.
Designed to work across IB DP, AP, A-Level, and GCSE physics. The misconceptions are universal — the diagnostic framework works everywhere.
We're offering free pilots to international schools. Students take a 15–20 minute diagnostic, and you receive a class-level misconception heatmap within 48 hours — plus targeted intervention recommendations.
FundaFirst HS exists because of a simple observation: students don't fail physics because they're not smart enough. They fail because they carry invisible misconceptions that no one ever surfaces — and these misconceptions persist right through exams, university, and beyond.
We're a team with years of deep, research-backed experience in education — particularly in physics, where the gap between procedural competence and conceptual understanding is widest and most damaging.
Rather than creating another course that repeats what textbooks already say, we went back to the published research. Our pedagogy draws on research instruments like the FCI and TUG-K, along with Arnold Arons' work on operational definitions, Randall Knight's research-based teaching strategies, Trowbridge & McDermott's foundational work on position-velocity confusion, the fundamental principles approach of Chabay and Sherwood, and Lewis Carroll Epstein's Thinking Physics.
The result is a "trap-first" methodology — one that identifies exactly where students go wrong, uses cognitive conflict to destabilize the misconception, and then rebuilds understanding from first principles. We're applying this across IB, AP, A-Level, and GCSE Physics as a continuous, diagnostic-driven arc.
You can't fix what you can't see. Every module begins with a diagnostic that maps the specific misconceptions a student holds — not just a score, but a roadmap.
Every trap we document, every diagnostic question we write, every intervention we design is grounded in published physics education research.
Formulas are tools, not understanding. We build the intuition that makes formulas meaningful — so students know why they work, not just how to plug in numbers.
Physics is interconnected. Our modules build on each other in a structured sequence, so students develop a coherent picture — not a pile of disconnected topics.