The aim of this study was to determine the cognitive structures of high school students related to the atmosphere and climate. The study group consists of 70 students in the 10th grade of a state high school affiliated to Konya Provincial Ministry of National Education. In this study, a survey model, which allowed us to determine the current situation, was used. Data were collected using the word association test (WAT). The key concepts related to the subject were climate, atmosphere, temperature, pressure, wind, humidity, and precipitation. A frequency calculation, a descriptive analysis technique, was used to analyze the data. The obtained data were subjected to evaluation, and a frequency table was prepared. Among the key concepts, the most response words were related to climate (n=20). The others were the atmosphere (n=14), temperature (n=14), humidity (n=11), precipitation (n=11), pressure (n=10) and wind (n=8). The answer word rain (n=49) was written for the key concept of precipitation and had the highest frequency value. The answer words for the key concepts were analyzed in detail, and concept networks were created using the cut-off point technique. Thus, it was attempted to reveal the cognitive structures of the students regarding the subject. In addition, sentence examples were analyzed and classified according to their characteristics and a scientific content table was created.