Elevated desks are gaining popularity in workplaces as studies continue to show that standing increases productivity and alertness, and reduces the negative effects of sedentary work. But as employers begin to embrace the benefits of active workers, not much has changed in the typical classroom. We continue to ask students to attentively learn—by taking notes, asking good questions, and behaving well—all while sitting in hard chairs for about 60 minutes at a time. If studies say adults need to get up and move around to improve brain function and learning, then the same goes for students. This kind of active learning can happen in any content area.
In my classroom, I mix seat time with group work and active movement. One of my favorite movement activities is station learning. On the walls of my room, there are eight colorful posters that mark the locations of stations one through eight. I use eight stations to spread out the student groups, which makes it easier for them to focus on their work. For some content, I will only set up four unique stations, with the other four repeating the content in different locations to give groups breathing room.
I familiarize students with station-based lessons during the first few days of school using a brief activity that introduces the first eight units of our Earth science curriculum. For this lesson, each station features a different unit, with a paragraph description of the topics in that unit, as well as a few representative pictures of the content. The worksheet for this introductory activity is simple—students are asked to write down the topics covered in the unit and the associated project or problem. Students also begin to fill out a K-W-L chart for each unit, noting what they think they know about the topics, and what questions they have (we will revisit the chart to record what they learned as the unit progresses).
Since this is the first time they are working at the stations, I assign students to the stations and am very structured with the time allotted for each station. I'll put a countdown on the projector and instruct them to remain at their station until time is up. If they finish early, I instruct them to discuss their observations with their group and try to increase their list of questions. When time is up, I'll rotate them in a clockwise direction. Being this orderly helps the students understand the importance of reading thoroughly, using all the time they are given, working with partners in a considerate manner, and learning how to rotate through the station activities. When student groups have rotated to all stations, we reconvene as a class and create a poster of student-generated questions that we will check off throughout the year as they are answered.
On any given day, the stations offer different activities and requirements. Here are some of my most popular stations.
Frayer Boxes
These are a fun way to learn definitions, perspectives, characters, and events—all related to one topic. At each station, students receive a worksheet with a focal topic at the center of a graphic organizer that's surrounded by four blank boxes. As students rotate to stations, they collect evidence that helps them fill in the four boxes with details about different topics, as each station provides a new worksheet with a new focal topic. (A variation on this would be to have one worksheet, and students rotate to stations to deeply investigate different aspects of one focal topic. In this case, each station would focus on filling in one box.)
Frayer model stations are like collecting pieces to complete a larger puzzle. For example, in my Earth science class, I placed information cards at every station with full page pictures of eight glacier artifacts: moraines, erratics, kettle lakes, till deposits, outwash plains, drumlins, u-shaped valleys, and abrasions. Students' worksheet boxes asked them to describe the feature, explain how it was created by the glacier, and draw an image. I asked them to leave the final box blank for our reflection time post movement activity.
Model Experience
In this activity, students must rotate through stations to answer a series of questions. Sometimes students find the answers to the activity's questions by analyzing physical models, dioramas, or objects. For example, when I received a kit of prefabricated landscape models, I created a station for each model and reworked the questions that came with the kits to draw out students' observations of certain landscape features.
In lieu of physical objects or models, teachers can also display informational posters or infographics that students must closely read to answer questions. To scaffold these sorts of informational scavenger hunts, teachers can use sticky notes to help students focus on particular items or areas of text.
Reviewing Modules
Stations can be an effective (and paper-saving!) way to engage students in review before an assessment. Instead of creating review materials for every student, students get a packet of blank review activities that might include exercises in matching, true and false, short answer, multiple choice, chart/diagram/image comprehension, and paragraph annotation. Each station has the materials students need to answer review or sample test questions. For my review stations, I have used unit readings, scientific images, informational charts, and Reference Table diagrams.
Mix-up Learning
My students like these stations the best. Each station has a different expectation, and all students need to bring are their notebooks. From a teacher's point-of-view, the key to setting up these stations is that each station must be able to stand on its own, meaning students can start at any station. I used this model to teach students about extreme weather. Each station approached the topic from a different angle or experience: with clips from the movie Twister, extreme weather warning notices posted in communities, information on how to build warning systems, data about how hurricanes are tracked, reading about extreme weather in relation to climate change, and reading first-person accounts of extreme weather (and then students used these details to write their own).
Here are some ideas for the types of learning students would be required to perform at each station in this model:
- Read an article or two for evidence on perspective and/or to compare and contrast perspectives.
- View multimedia (include earphones with a multiple plug adaptor) portraying some aspect of content.
- Draw or create imagery illustrating a topic.
- Use the internet to research a topic.
- Conduct a laboratory exercise.
- Provide creative solutions to a presented problem.
- Analyze a case study.
- Play a learning game with a content focus.
Tips for Station Success
Here are a few quick tidbits to remember as you plan your stations:
- Time at each station needs to be uniform and appropriate (Frayer boxes can take 5 minutes; mix-ups can be 30 minutes).
- Give some time at the end for students to revisit a station or activity.
- Have answer hints available where appropriate (hints can be in folders at the teacher's desk or in another location).
- Always wrap-up the full activity with the entire class. Ask students to share what they noticed, conclusions they made, and new questions they raised.
Wrap-up activities are really important to support the learning and allow students time to reflect. I also like to add self-assessment and peer-assessment to some of my wrap-ups. These post-station activities provide the formative assessment feedback to help teachers check whether students have learned the material.
Stations can be a great way to reduce seat time by getting students up from their desks and exploring exhibits in the classroom. From my experience, students have fun collecting information and completing activities. While they're having fun, I know they are also learning and deeply connecting to the content.