Science Assessment ~ Items ~ MO067003

An engineer wants to know how well an airplane will fly when it is raining. She makes a model of the airplane and finds out that the model is able to fly in the rain. What conclusions can she draw?

She can be absolutely certain that the real airplane will fly well in the rain because the model flew well when it was raining.
She can be absolutely certain that the real airplane will fly well in the rain, but only if her model includes all of the things she thinks might affect how the real airplane flies in the rain.
She cannot be absolutely certain that the real airplane will fly well in the rain unless she actually flies the real airplane in the rain.
She cannot be absolutely certain that the real airplane will fly well in the rain because predictions made using models are never accurate.

Details
Performance
NGSS

Topic: Models
Correct Answer: C
Misconceptions

Distribution of Responses

Chart showing distrubtion of responses for Item MO067003

Students Responding Correctly

Group	Correct	Total	Percent
Overall	4281	9405	46%
Grades
6–8	2520	5842	43%
9–12	1750	3546	49%
Gender
Male	1997	4493	44%
Female	2178	4712	46%
Primary Language
English	3918	8449	46%
Other	251	733	34%

View data table

NRC Framework: Because all models contain approximations and assumptions that limit the range of validity of their application and the precision of their predictive power, it is important to recognize their limitations.

Science Assessment

Item MO067003: Even if an engineer makes a good model of an airplane and discovers that it can fly well in the rain, she still cannot be absolutely certain that the real airplane will fly well in the rain unless she actually flies it in the rain.