Succession and Species Diversity Activity: 8 Hands-On Stations for Teaching Primary and Secondary Succession (TEKS 8.12B)

Chris Kesler · 8 min read

Show an 8th grader a photo of bare lava rock and ask what's going to grow on it first. Most of them will say "trees" or "grass." A few will say "nothing, it's rock." Almost none of them will say "lichens, then mosses, then shrubs, then a forest 400 years from now."

That's the gap TEKS 8.12B closes. Primary succession starts on bare rock and builds an ecosystem from scratch. Secondary succession kicks in after a hurricane, fire, or flood when the soil is still there. Both processes change the populations and species diversity of an ecosystem in predictable ways, and your students need to be able to describe both.

The Succession and Species Diversity Station Lab for TEKS 8.12B walks kids through this in one to two class periods. They sequence the colonization of a Maui lava field, compare population data from two locations after a disturbance, and identify which type of succession follows a hurricane, a forest fire, a glacier melt, and a volcanic eruption. By the end, they can tell primary from secondary at a glance and explain how species diversity rebounds.

⏱ 1–2 class periods 📓 8th Grade Science 🧪 TEKS 8.12B 🎯 Built-in differentiation 💻 Print or Digital

8 hands-on stations for teaching succession and species diversity

A station lab is a student-led activity where small groups rotate through 8 stations (plus a 9th challenge station for early finishers) at their own pace during one to two class periods. You become a facilitator instead of a lecturer. You walk around, spot-check, and break misconceptions while kids work through the rotation.

The Succession and Species Diversity Station Lab has four input stations (where students take in new info on primary and secondary succession) and four output stations (where they show what they learned). Here's what's at each one.

📷 Image slot 1 — add screenshot

📷 Image slot 2 — add screenshot

4 input stations: how students learn succession

🎬 Watch It! —

A short YouTube video introduces ecological succession. Students answer three questions: what is ecological succession, what is a possible cause for primary succession and how is soil generated, and what can cause secondary succession to occur. This is the framing station that gets every kid working from the same definition before they hit the harder stations.

📖 Read It! —

A one-page passage called "Succession Is Not Just for Royalty" walks students through the Haleakala volcano on Maui (last erupted over 400 years ago) and how the eastern part of the island went from bare lava rock to over 850 plant species. The passage also explains how a hurricane sets up secondary succession. Three multiple-choice questions follow plus five vocabulary terms (lichen, pioneer species, primary succession, secondary succession, succession). Comes in two reading levels (Dependent and Modified) plus a Spanish version.

🔬 Explore It! —

This is the heart of the lab. Students get 11 event cards and have to put them in chronological order to model primary succession. The sequence runs from a volcanic eruption leaving bare rock, through lichens producing acid to break down the rock, mosses anchoring in and adding nutrients, grass and primary consumers showing up, bushes outcompeting smaller plants, flowering plants pulling in pollinators, and finally trees and tertiary consumers. Then they write a brief explanation of why they ordered the cards the way they did. By the end, kids can recite the order without thinking about it.

💻 Research It! —

Students examine 8 reference cards: definitions of primary and secondary succession, two real population data tables (oak trees at Locations A and B from 1950 to 2010, plus species diversity at the same locations), and four photos of disturbances (hurricane, forest fire, glacier melt, volcanic eruption). Four questions ask them to compare the type of succession that follows each disturbance, interpret the oak tree data (what happened around 1980 at Location A), and explain a species-diversity drop and recovery. The data table questions are the differentiator on this lab.

📷 Featured station deep-dive — add screenshot of the Explore It! task card

4 output stations: how students show what they learned

📋 Organize It! —

A card sort. Kids match disturbance events with the type of succession that follows. Primary: volcano eruption leaving rock behind, glacier melt, rock beach, new land formation, rock beds. Secondary: forest fire, deforestation, hurricane, tsunami, mudslide. The split is intentionally tricky — kids have to remember that a volcano leaves rock (primary) but a hurricane leaves soil (secondary). Easy to spot-check at a glance.

🎨 Illustrate It! —

Students draw quick sketches showing the steps of both primary succession and secondary succession side by side. They use colored pencils or markers to show the progression: bare rock to lichens to mosses to grass to trees for primary, and disturbed forest with surviving soil to grass to shrubs to trees for secondary. The two sketches next to each other lock in the difference.

✍️ Write It! —

Three open-ended questions: how primary succession differs from secondary succession, three examples of natural events or human activities that can cause an ecosystem disruption and start succession, and how pioneer species play a critical role in the process. This is the writing practice middle schoolers need and rarely get in science class.

📝 Assess It! —

Eight multiple-choice and fill-in-the-paragraph questions tied to TEKS 8.12B vocabulary (lichen, pioneer species, primary succession, secondary succession, succession). Includes "what typically happens as succession progresses," the difference between primary and secondary, and the role of lichens. The fill-in paragraph weaves all five vocabulary words into one passage about an ecosystem rebuilding itself. If you're grading the lab, this is the easiest station to grade.

Bonus Challenge It! station for early finishers

🏆 Challenge It! —

Four optional extensions: write an acrostic poem using the word "succession," create a comic strip showing species moving in during the stages of succession, design an infographic about secondary succession restoring an ecosystem, or build a 7-term crossword puzzle (paper or with the Discovery Education tool). Requires teacher approval before they start.

How this fits into a complete succession and species diversity unit

This Station Lab is the Explore day of our full Succession and Species Diversity Complete 5E Lesson for TEKS 8.12B. The complete two-week unit follows the 5E method of instruction and includes an Engage hook, the Succession and Species Diversity Station Lab for Explore, PowerPoint slides and interactive notebook pages for Explain, student choice projects to Elaborate, and an Evaluate assessment.

Most teachers grab the full 5E because the Station Lab lands hardest with the days around it. But if you just need a strong hands-on day on primary and secondary succession, the Station Lab on its own does the job.

Two options

Succession and Species Diversity 5E Lesson cover

Full 5E Lesson $13.20 Get the 5E Lesson

Succession and Species Diversity Station Lab cover

Just the Station Lab $7.20 Get the Station Lab

Materials needed to teach succession and species diversity

Materials beyond what's in the download:

Colored pencils or markers for the Illustrate It! station — kids draw both primary and secondary succession side by side, so a few colors really help the sketches read clearly.
Scissors and a small basket or envelope for the Organize It! sort cards (cut and laminate before the first rotation, then reuse).
Pencils and the printed answer sheets (included)
A device with internet for the Watch It! station

Standard covered: Texas TEKS 8.12B —

Describe how primary and secondary ecological succession affect populations and species diversity after ecosystems are disrupted by natural events or human activity.

See the full standard breakdown →

Grade level: 8th grade life science

Time: One to two class periods (45–110 minutes total). Plan for two periods the first time you run a station lab.

Common student misconceptions this lab fixes

"Primary and secondary succession take about the same amount of time."
Not even close. Primary succession can take hundreds to thousands of years because it has to start with lichens producing acid to break down rock and create soil. Secondary succession can recover an ecosystem to a mature state in decades because the soil is already there. The Read It! Maui passage drops the "over 400 years" timeframe for primary, and the Research It! oak tree data table from 1950 to 2010 shows secondary succession recovering populations within 30 years. Watch which kids point to that timeline gap on the Write It! response. If they treat both as "a few years," they're missing it.
"Succession only happens after big disasters like volcanoes."
Succession happens any time an ecosystem is disrupted, big or small. A patch of farmland that gets abandoned starts secondary succession the next spring. A field that burns from a small wildfire restarts succession. Even a downed tree in an old-growth forest creates a small succession event. The Organize It! card sort drives this home with five secondary succession examples (forest fire, deforestation, hurricane, tsunami, mudslide), only one of which involves a volcano. The Watch It! video also frames everyday human activities as succession triggers.
"A climax community stays the same forever once it's reached."
Even a so-called climax community is constantly shifting. Trees fall, fires burn small patches, populations boom and crash, and new species move in or out. The Research It! oak tree data shows Location A's population crashing from 155 to 25 between 1965 and 1980, then rebuilding. That's an established community that got disturbed and started a new succession cycle. The Assess It! "what typically happens as succession progresses" question tests this directly. If kids think the end state is permanent, they'll miss it.
"More species always means more stable, no matter what."
More species generally means more stable, but the relationship isn't automatic. The Research It! Species Diversity table shows Location A dropping from 150 species in 1950 to 75 in 1965 (a disturbance hit), then climbing back to 135 by 2010. That's how diversity actually behaves after a disturbance — it bottoms out, then climbs as more complex species replace simpler ones. The Write It! pioneer species question gets at this from another angle: those early species enable the later, more diverse community.

What you get with this succession and species diversity activity

📷 Inside-the-product — add screenshot of Read It passage or sample answer sheet

When you buy the Station Lab, you get a single download with everything you need:

Print version at two reading levels (Dependent for on-grade, Modified for additional support) plus a Spanish Read It! passage
Digital version as PowerPoint files (works in Google Slides too) at both levels — for 1:1 classrooms or Google Classroom
Teacher Directions and Answer Key for both versions, all keys included
Station task cards ready to print, laminate, and drop in baskets at each station
Reference cards for the Research It! station (primary and secondary succession definitions, two population data tables, four disturbance photos)
Sort cards for the Organize It! station (10 disturbance examples to match with primary or secondary succession)
Sequence cards for the Explore It! station (11 events to put in chronological order)
Student answer sheets for each level

No login required. Download once, use forever. Reprint as many times as you want.

Tips for teaching succession and species diversity in your 8th grade classroom

Two things make this lab go smoother the first time:

1. Pre-laminate the Explore It! sequence cards.

The Explore It! station has 11 cards that get handled by every group. Print them on cardstock or laminate them before class and they'll survive multiple class periods. Kids spread them across the table to work out the order, so you want them durable. Drop them into an envelope at the station and the next group reshuffles in 30 seconds.

2. Stand near the Research It! data tables during the first rotation.

The two data tables at Research It! (Population Comparison and Species Diversity) are where you'll find out who actually understands what happened. If a kid looks at the oak tree drop from 155 to 25 between 1965 and 1980 and can't tell you a disturbance hit Location A, you know they need extra time on the disturbance-recovery cycle before the Write It! station.

Get this succession and species diversity activity

Succession and Species Diversity Station Lab for 8th grade life science — TEKS 8.12B

Buy the Station Lab — $7.20

Or if you want the full two-week experience with the Engage hook, Explain day, Elaborate extension, and Evaluate assessment all included:

Buy the full 5E Complete Lesson — $13.20

(Station Lab is included)

Frequently asked questions

What does TEKS 8.12B cover?

Texas TEKS 8.12B asks 8th grade students to describe how primary and secondary ecological succession affect populations and species diversity after ecosystems are disrupted by natural events or human activity. Students should be able to identify which type of succession follows a given disturbance, sequence the stages of each, and interpret population and diversity data from before and after a disturbance.

What's the difference between primary and secondary succession?

Primary succession starts with bare rock and no soil — think a freshly cooled lava field or a glacier-scraped surface. It takes hundreds to thousands of years because pioneer species like lichens have to break down rock to create soil before anything else can grow. Secondary succession starts when an ecosystem is disturbed but the soil is still there — think a forest fire, hurricane, or abandoned farmland. It can recover within decades because the soil and seed bank are still in place.

How long does this succession activity take?

One to two class periods (45 to 110 minutes total). The Explore It! sequence-building station is the slowest, so plan for two periods the first time you run a station lab. Once your class has the routine down, most groups can finish all 8 stations in one period.

Do I need to provide my own materials?

Just colored pencils or markers and scissors for the sort cards. The total cost for a class of 30: under $5 if you don't already have these supplies. The Watch It! station also needs a device with internet.

Can I use this in a 1:1 digital classroom?

Yes. The full digital version (PowerPoint or Google Slides) works in 1:1 classrooms and Google Classroom. Students drag and drop the sequence cards and sort cards on screen instead of physically. Everything else (Watch It!, Read It!, Research It!, Write It!, Assess It!) translates directly.