Secondary project briefs (ages 11+)

Bronze Awards are typically completed by students aged 11+. They complete a ten-hour project which is a perfect introduction to STEM project work. Over the course of the project, teams of students design their own investigation, record their findings, and reflect on their learnings. This process gives students a taste of what it is like to be a scientist or engineer in the real-world.

Silver Awards are typically completed by students aged 14+ over thirty hours. Project work at Silver level is designed to stretch your students and enrich their STEM studies. Students direct the project, determining the project’s aim and how they will achieve it. They carry out the project, record and analyse their results and reflect on the project and their learnings. All Silver projects are assessed by CREST assessors via our online platform.

Gold Awards are typically completed by students aged 16+ over seventy hours. Students’ projects are self-directed, longer term and immerse them in real research. At this level, we recommend students work with a mentor from their chosen STEM field of study. All Gold projects are assessed by CREST assessors via our online platform. There are more CREST approved resources that have been developed by our partners and providers specific to your region.

There are more CREST approved resources that have been developed by our partners and providers specific to your region.

Find out how to build practical CREST projects into secondary science lessons using our free teacher guidance pack. Supporting this guidance are easy-to-use, free-to-download mapping workbooks, which match individual Bronze, Silver and Gold CREST Award projects with each area of the secondary science curricula for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. You can download and save your own copy of the relevant mapping workbook via the following links:

To browse the briefs, click the buttons below or scroll down.

Bronze Silver Gold Partner resources

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All SuperStar challenges

The activities in this pack have been selected from our library of CREST SuperStar challenges. Children need to complete eight challenges to achieve a CREST SuperStar Award. If you want, you can mix and match challenges from different packs, as long as children complete eight SuperStar challenges. This resource is published under an Attribution - non-commercial - no derivatives 4.0 International creative commons licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Protecting Polymers

Protecting Polymers Activity Card You Dr Polly Murs RE: Protecting Polymers Dear Investigators, I am one of the scientists at Horners. We all love finding new uses for polymers. I have a big problem. Last night I made macaroni cheese for my lunch. My favourite! I covered the plate with foil and put it in my backpack. The foil tore on my way to work and my lunch spilt everywhere. I don’t think foil is the best material for wrapping my lunch. You can’t even put foil in the microwave so I have to eat my lunch cold. Cling film is one of my favourite polymers. I think it might solve my problem, but there are so many different types. Can you help me find the best one? Dr Polly Murs Your challenge Can you help Dr Polly Murs to find the best cling film to protect her lunch? Discuss Do you bring lunch to school? What do you wrap it in? What are the differences between aluminium foil and cling film? Cling film doesn’t feel sticky, so how does it stick? Do you notice any differences between the different cling films? How are they different from foil?

Getting started You will need some different types of cling film and some foil. First, wrap each material being tested around a container. Next drop a weight onto the film from 10cm above. • Do any of the films break? • Do any come loose? • What happens if you drop the weight from higher up? • What happens if you put cling film in the freezer? • Which cling film is strongest? • Which cling film is stickiest? • How do the cling films compare with foil? Test your ideas You might like to record your results in a table like this one. Can you think of any other ways you could test the different cling films and foil? Foil Cling film 1 Cling film 2 Cling film 3 10g weight from 10cm height 10g weight from 20cm height 10g weight from 10cm height after cling film has been in the freezer Share your ideas You could put your results in a table and display them in a bar chart, or make a video of your investigation to send to Dr Polly Murs. Extra things to do Find out how plastic films are used by doctors and nurses. Make a list of other polymers Polly can use to protect her lunch. Find out more about which polymers can be recycled. British Science Association Registered Charity No. 212479 and SC039236