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The planetary model of the atom is alive and well in middle school science class—and in popular iconography—despite most educated adults’ awareness of its shortcomings. The model persists because it is easily visualized, intuitively understandable, and expresses important truths. Models don’t have to get everything right to be useful. Middle schoolers would be overwhelmed by a more correct description of electron orbitals as probability densities satisfying the Schrödinger equation. Better to just show orbitals as ellipses. In the current era, when immensely powerful AI technologies built on neural networks are rapidly disrupting the world, K-12 students need age-appropriate models of neural networks just as they need age-appropriate models of atoms. We suggest the linear threshold unit as the best model for introducing middle school students to neural computation, and we present an interactive tool, Neuron Sandbox, that facilitates their learning.