While these young students have a generally good idea of how
the molecules of a solid, liquid, or gas behave, there are some
further things they could do to make their modeling activity more
In a solid, they should be locked together, perhaps holding on to each others arms. If the solid were a crystal like a diamond or salt, the individual atoms or molecules are attached to each other in an ordered, repeating pattern called a lattice.
In a liquid, they would be moving in relation to one another, but still be quite close.
Finally, as a gas, they were correct to be spread apart. But their motion should be much more complicated and they should be moving at all different speeds, bumping into each other and the container walls.