The cognitive test was designed such that students were
asked to provide as much information as possible about the
atoms of different elements (atomic mass, number of protons,
neutrons, and electrons, and how many electrons are
in the respective shells) with very limited given information.
Each correct piece of information that the student provided
was given one point, for a total of 30 possible points. A typical
example of a test item is shown in Figure 2. The distribution
of test scores is shown in Figure 3.
to discuss all results again with the whole class after the group
work was finished.