Helping Teens Build Skills Through Station Rotation

Hannah Horner, a science teacher at Spring Mills High School in Martinsburg, West Virginia, was talking to her eight-year-old son when she had a revelation. Her son’s favorite activity in elementary school is stations—the chance to rotate around the classroom and try something new at each station. Her realization? Station rotation would translate perfectly to her high school science classes.

To organize stations in her classroom, Horner first identifies the primary goal she wants students to meet, such as being able to differentiate between types of cells. She then breaks down that concept into smaller, skills-based chunks. Each station asks students to take on a distinct hands-on task, and the stations complement and build on each other. To begin class, Horner explains the activity at each station. Students then form small groups and pick a station to begin. 

Stations offer a chance to reinforce skills and concepts that students learned earlier in the unit. Because students had previously learned about the parts of a microscope, one of the stations asked them to label those parts on a diagram. Another station reviewed the similarities and differences between plant and animal cells. At the same time, stations give students the chance to stretch their knowledge and create new skills. A third station, for example, asked students to make their own slide for the first time. Because they know how to use a microscope and look at cells, they’ve built the confidence to try this higher-level activity.

Horner sees a number of benefits to the practice. After a long day of sitting at desks, students are energized by the chance to move around. When they encounter a challenging station, they’re less likely to be overwhelmed because the activity is a reasonable size—and they have their fellow classmates to help them. Meanwhile, Horner rotates around the room, checking in and offering tailored support when needed.

In addition to building science skills, stations also challenge students to practice time management. Horner recommends that students spend between seven and ten minutes at each station, but she doesn’t set a timer. Students pace themselves, spending longer at stations that challenge them and moving more quickly through stations that they find simpler. The result is that students are always doing something productive; when they’ve completed a station, they move on. 

Horner also notes the benefits for classrooms that have limited equipment: “With stations, you can cut down on the amount of resources, because instead of needing 20 microscopes in my classroom today, I needed six—and I could have done it with three.” 

And station rotation is highly adaptable—at Spring Mills High School, English classes have used stations to examine Romeo & Juliet. Even the admins designing the school’s professional development activities have caught on, implementing stations as they train teachers to keep them engaged and learning new skills. From 8-year-olds to adults, stations offer a flexible, hands-on way to learn—at any age. 

To find more resources on the strategy for middle and high school classrooms, read Tim Smyth’s article for Edutopia, “Building Students’ Background Knowledge With Station Rotation,” or Elena Spythe’s piece, “Station Rotation in World Language Classes.”