Original Project
Models
Models are useful for thinking about real-world objects, events, and processes.
Item MO038004: It is acceptable and sometimes beneficial for a model to lack features of the real thing that are not relevant to what is being studied.
An engineer made a model of a ship to help him think about how it works. He made sure that some characteristics of the ship were accurately represented, but he did not include all of the ship's characteristics in his model. Is it okay that he ignored some of the ship’s characteristics?
- It is okay, but only if he represented the characteristics that affect how the ship works, because models need to include the characteristics that are relevant to what is being studied.
- It is okay, but only if he represented the characteristics that affected whether the model looks like the ship, because models should look like the things that they represent.
- It is okay, but only if he represented the characteristics that people would be interested in knowing about, because models are only used to communicate information to others.
- It is not okay that he ignored some of the ship's characteristics. A model should be like the object it is representing in every way possible.
- Distribution of Responses
- Students Responding Correctly
| Group | Correct | Total | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 594 | 1499 | 40% |
| Grades | |||
| 6–8 | 352 | 947 | 37% |
| 9–12 | 242 | 552 | 44% |
| Gender | |||
| Male | 263 | 700 | 38% |
| Female | 322 | 776 | 41% |
| Primary Language | |||
| English | 538 | 1328 | 41% |
| Other | 42 | 133 | 32% |