Station Rotation Lesson Plan

During pre-student teaching last year, I mentioned to my host teacher that I would like to
design a station rotation lesson where the students, traveling around in small groups, complete
various activities and tasks at stations around the room. Needless to say, pre-student teaching
flew by and I wasnt able to put my idea into practice until this past week.
Content and Standards
This lesson reinforced what the students learned about ecology over the last three days.
NMPS: I-I-I-1; II-II-I-1,2,3,4,5,6; II-II-II-1,4,5,10
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Prerequisites
Students be present for most of the days leading up to this lesson. Students must know how to
read and write.
Essential Questions
How do organisms interact with members of their own population, members of different
populations, and with their physical environment?
Instructional Objective
Students will apply knowledge of limiting factors in an ecosystem by reading, discussing,
analyzing data during station rotation
Students will show comprehension of adaptations and describe how an organisms adaptations
help it survive by reading, discussing and answering questions during station rotation.
Instructional procedures
Before: Students will enter the room and immediately begin the warm-up which is projected on
the overhead. This warm-up is included below. After 5 minutes, we grade it and review.

Bell work Friday, February 19th

On a separate piece of notebook paper write down your answers. You will get 3 minutes to complete and
we will grade after. Use the picture to help you answer.

1.List 4 biotic factors

2.List 3 abiotic factors
3.Which of the following is an example of a population:
a. all of the organisms
b. the coyote hunting the roadrunner
c. all the antelope in the desert
4.The area an organism lives that provides all the resources it needs to survive:
a. population
b. habitat
c. niche

During: After reviewing previously learned concepts students folded paper in half twice (hotdog
and hamburger) and then numbered each quadrant one through five, five was on the back. We
then headed over to the lab and I split the students into groups of four to five. I made the groups
earlier in the week to guarantee on task behavior and to mix skill levels within groups. Students
then started at one of five stations and got four minutes at each station. As students are rotating I
am checking in on them at the more difficult stations:
1. Students analyzed a graph in their textbooks which plotted hare population over ten
years. Students had to answer at what year the population was at its highest and what that

number was. Then, the students were asked how fox populations would have changed
over the 10 years if hares were their primary source of food.
2. Students were given pictures of a Bald Eagle, rattlesnake, and Jackrabbit and they had to
pick two of them and describe an adaptation on that animal, and why they had that
adaptation.
3. Students were given a worksheet that described a situation where all the plants on an
island died. Then, they had to pick one of four statements that described what would
happen after all the plants died. Once they decided, they had to explain their reasoning.
4. Students were given seven desert plants to choose from. They had to pick two, describe
an adaptation on each and then explain why they thought it had that adaptation.
5. Students were given three sets of cards. Each had a picture of an individual, population,
community, and ecosystem. They had the sort the level of organization from smallest to
largest. Then, the students had to look at a picture of a desert ecosystem and identify the
habitat of a Mule Deer and Ground Squirrel.
After: We headed back to the classroom and students were asked to think-pair-share, Describe
cactus or tumbleweed adaptations share out.
Materials and Equipment
Teacher: computer with projector, all materials listed in stations, stopwatch/timer
Student: pencil, two pieces of paper each (one for warm-up, one for stations)
Assessment and Evaluation
I collected their station rotation sheets and used a warm-up and think-pair-share at the end to
assess student learning
Differentiation

I decided student groups so I could arrange balanced groups. Also, students who had major
intellectual disabilities or slow processing speed were accommodated at each station. For
example, at station two, four, and five students only had to pick one animal to analyze. Stations
one and three remained the same.
Technology
Computer and overhead projector used.