Learning to Solder Technique

I've been teaching middle schoolers to solder for years but I only came up with this approach to the workflow this year and it has been a game changer.

There is a bottleneck in the classroom with this kind of activity because the required supervision and limited resources necessitate a centers approach so I can teach and monitor students individually. What I have them do now is follow this workflow:

1. Take a handout with the desired circuit, 
2. go to a materials station to collect their components, 
3. tape their circuit to a block of wood at their seats,
4. bring their taped circuit to the soldering station to solder it together, and finally,
5. remove the tape and test that their circuit works, then insert it into whatever project it's made for.

This is the kind of handout example I give them. We discuss the labeled information they need to know and pay attention to, such as LED polarity and connections to leave exposed.

By the way, if you are looking for a good kit that teaches soldering skills I highly recommend these Learn to Solder kits. I got them for my high school Girls Who Code club and they especially loved the Jitterbug kit.