In the current study, the purpose is to determine the secondary school students' cognitive structure related to the concept of atom by using the drawing technique. The study was conducted with the participation of 90 5 th , 6 th , 7 th and 8 th grade students in 2016-2017 school year. The students were asked two open-ended questions to illustrate the concept of atom in their minds and to explain where they have learned the information expressed in their drawings about the atom so that the atom models in their minds could be elicited. The students' responses to these questions were categorized by means of qualitative analysis and frequencies were calculated for them. At the end of the study, it was determined whether the atom models drawn by the students are false or acceptable. It was seen that the students rarely illustrated nucleus and electrons in their drawings and they usually drew spheres. Moreover, the students stated that they learned this information mostly from different textbooks or the Internet.Keywords: Atom; cognitive structure; drawing technique; secondary school students.(Extended English abstract is at the end of this document) Özet Çocuklar, etraflarında olan olaylara karşı aşırı meraklıdırlar ve kavramlara kendileri kişisel anlamlar yüklemektedir.Öğrencilerin kavramları anlayabilmeleri için kavramların zihinlerine doğru bir şekilde kodlanması gerekmektedir. Bu çalışmada; ortaokul öğrencilerinin atom kavramı ile ilgili bilişsel yapılarının çizim tekniği ile belirlemesi amaçlanmıştır. 2016-2017 eğitim öğretim yılı bahar döneminde gerçekleştirilen çalışma; 5., 6., 7. ve 8. sınıflarında öğrenim görmekte olan toplam 90 ortaokul öğrencisiyle gerçekleştirilmiştir. Çalışmada öğrencilerin zihinlerindeki atom modellerini belirlemek amacıyla atom kavramı ile ilgili bir çizim yapmaları ve bu çizdikleri şekle ait bilgiyi nereden öğrendiklerini ifade edebilmeleri için iki adet açık uçlu soru sorulmuştur. Öğrencilerin verdikleri cevaplar nitel analiz yöntemiyle kategorilere ayrılmış ve frekans değerleri elde edilmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda öğrencilerin çizdikleri atom modellerinin yanlış veya kabul edilebilir seviye olduğu belirlenmiştir. Öğrencilerin çizimlerinde nadiren çekirdek ve elektronlara yer verdiği genellikle küre şeklinde çizim yaptıkları görülmektedir. Ayrıca öğrencilerin bu bilgilere genellikle farklı ders kitaplarından veya internetten öğrendiklerini ifade ettikleri tespit edilmiştir.Anahtar Kelimeler: Atom; bilişsel yapı; çizim tekniği; ortaokul öğrencileri.

This study was conducted in order to determine the knowledge that middle school students have about the concept of "atom" and the sources from which they learned this information. The study was conducted with a total of 90 secondary school students in the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade of a secondary school in the province of Aksaray in the academic year of 2016-2017. Six open-ended questionnaires were used as data collection tools in order to reveal knowledge of students about atomic concept. The collected data were analyzed and interpreted by the content analysis technique. According to the results of the research, the answers given by majority of the 5th and 6th grade students are wrong; It was seen that 7th and 8th grade students gave the correct answers and expressed the smallest building unit of atomic material. The 5th, 6th, and 7th grade students who responded incorrectly explain the atomic concept with explosives; 8th grade students tried to explain with cell concept. This means that students in the 5th, 6th, and 7th classes will be able to confused the atomic concept with the atomic bomb concept; 8th grade students confused the cell concept.