Categorizing Galaxies Station Lab - New TEKS 8.9B

This modular, student-led activity is fully aligned with TEKS 2021 standard 8.9B and is designed to keep your middle school students engaged while exploring space science. With everything included, you’ll save a ton of prep time while giving students the opportunity to direct their own learning.

In this interactive lab, students will categorize galaxies as spiral, elliptical, and irregular and locate Earth’s solar system within the Milky Way galaxy. This lesson is flexible and works perfectly for both in-class and virtual learning.

Differentiated, Modular, and Student-Centered

Each lab includes nine stations that give students a personalized learning experience. Teachers guide and facilitate, while students work independently or in small groups to build understanding.

All signage, readings, task cards, and resources are included. The Explore It! station may require a few simple classroom supplies you likely already have on hand.

The Stations

Input Stations – Learn the Concepts

• Explore It! – Hands-on demo or digital drag-and-drop in PowerPoint/Google Slides

• Watch It! – Short video with guiding questions

• Read It! – Differentiated passages (English & Spanish) with vocabulary and comprehension practice

• Research It! – Website-based investigation with graphs, images, and tasks

Output Stations – Show Understanding

• Organize It! – Printable or digital card sorts/manipulatives

• Illustrate It! – Sketches or models for visual reinforcement

• Write It! – Open-ended written responses in complete sentences

• Assess It! – Task cards + a vocabulary-in-context paragraph

Bonus Station – Challenge It!
Enrichment activities for early finishers, including crosswords, games, and mini-projects

Virtual & In-Class Flexibility

This station lab is fully compatible with Google Slides and PowerPoint, making it easy to implement in both traditional and online classrooms.

Why Teachers Love It:

• Differentiated for diverse learning needs

• Multimodal design to keep students engaged

• Flexible in digital or print formats

• Minimal prep required

This resource is also part of the Categorizing Galaxies 5E Lesson Plan, which expands into editable presentations, interactive notebooks, projects, assessments, and more.

This is a finished product; it will be updated with corrections as needed. Future improvements and new features will be sold as a separate product.