Science Assessment ~ Items ~ MO061003

A student makes a simple model of the solar system by using a basketball to represent the sun. He then puts a series of ping pong balls in a line to represent each of the planets. The ping pong balls are spaced evenly about one foot apart from each other.

He wants to use the model to compare how long it would take for a spaceship to travel between different planets. How should he change the model to help him decide?

He should paint the balls so that each ball looks more like the planet it represents.
He should add a spaceship to the model to represent the spaceship traveling to the planets.
He should use different sized balls to represent the planets so that the relative sizes of the planets are represented.
He should spread the balls out differently so that the relative distances between the planets are represented.

Details
Performance
NGSS

Topic: Models
Correct Answer: D
Misconceptions

Distribution of Responses

Chart showing distrubtion of responses for Item MO061003

Students Responding Correctly

Group	Correct	Total	Percent
Overall	2179	3143	69%
Grades
6–8	1215	1945	62%
9–12	949	1181	80%
Gender
Male	998	1479	67%
Female	1125	1583	71%
Primary Language
English	1994	2845	70%
Other	131	213	62%

View data table

NRC Framework: HS Practice 2: Represent and explain phenomena with multiple types of models...and move flexibly between model types when different ones are most useful for different purposes.

Science Assessment

Item MO061003: If a student is studying how long it would take a spaceship to go between different planets in the solar system, his model should accurately represent the relative distances between the planets, but does not need to accurately represent other aspects of the solar system.