The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS 1993) states that by the end of fifth grade, students should understand that a model, such as those depicting the solar system, is a smaller version of the real product, making it easier to physically work with and therefore learn from. However, for students and even adults, understanding the size and distance of the solar system is hard to grasp (Hanuscin and Park Rogers 2008). Thus, learning about the solar system in the classroom becomes a challenging task and helping students understand the notion of "scale" with models needs to be addressed. In this article, the authors describe one approach teachers can use to elicit students' misconceptions about the distance between planets in the solar system. Using this information, they can then address the importance of scale in scientific models.(Contains 6 figures and 5 online resources.)