1 3 Education and Information Technologies https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-10911-1 Abstract This paper presents an analysis of cognitive skill levels expressed in high school students’ performance using laboratory simulations. We address lower-order cogni- tive skills (LOCS) and higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS) situations in a virtual simulation activity, in order to identify and underly further discussions about stu- dents’ reasoning when dealing with diferent levels of questions in such an envi- ronment. The research participants are 38 high school students, with an average age of 16 years, they performed an activity with two laboratory simulations in an instructional context in which students, working in small groups, could demonstrate their abilities to attain LOCS and HOCS levels. To analyze data, we established connections between students’ responses and cognitive skill levels, making sure that the established level contemplates the achieved performance. Results related to the attainment of LOCS level were found to be consistent with the literature as there was a prevailing adequacy, observed by the greater proportion of lower-order skills (LOCS-L3), related to concepts memorization However, when it comes to HOCS capacity, there is a diferent pattern of students’ performance, evidenced in students’ difculties in expressing higher-level reasoning, suggesting eforts to the attainment of HOCS level through diferent approaches of interaction. The outcome of this study suggests that combining LOCS and HOCS in laboratory simulations may help teachers identify and progress on students’ reasoning between cognitive skill levels, and also contribute to the assessment and adaptation of simulations in order to facilitate learning. Keywords Cognitive skill levels · High-school chemistry education · Laboratory simulations · Qualitative/Interpretive research Received: 15 September 2021 / Accepted: 18 January 2022 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022 Learning through chemistry simulations: an analysis of cognitive skill levels Renan Amorim da Silva 1  · Flávia Cristina Gomes Catunda de Vasconcelos 1  Renan Amorim da Silva renan.amorim@ufpe.br 1 Department of Teacher Education, Federal University of Pernambuco, Rodovia BR-104, Km 59, s/n—Nova Caruaru, Caruaru, Pernambuco, Brazil (2022) 27:6967–6987 / Published online: 31 January 2022