Models and Their Limits

Judge what a poster, a mobile, and a scale model show well and what they get wrong.

Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.

What children learn in Level 15

The solar system is too big to see all at once, so scientists use models. Every model has strengths and limitations.
This poster model shows the order of the planets and their colors. But all the planets are the same size, and that's not true!
This model draws the sizes to scale. Now you can see how huge Jupiter and Saturn are. But the distances still aren't to scale.
Why not? The real distances are enormous. On a football field model with Neptune at the far goal line, Earth would be smaller than a grain of sand!
So when you look at a model, ask: what does it show well, and what does it get wrong?

Georgia Standards of Excellence in Science:

S4E1.d — Evaluate strengths and limitations of models of our solar system in describing relative size, order, appearance and composition of planets and the sun. (Clarification statement: Composition of planets is limited to rocky vs. gaseous.)