(This paper is a PowerPoint presentation.)

We have asked students to rank ten written descriptions of the atom as more or less plausible as part of a survey we have administered to beginning university physics students at the Ohio State University. The student opinions seem to fall naturally into three classes—clearly reasonable models (generally agreed to be plausible), a muddled group in no certain order, and clearly unreasonable models (generally agreed to be implausible). Our poster will discuss these student ideas.