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/).

Spinning Solutions

Spinning Solutions Activity Card Richie has been to the Startown History Museum with his friends. They visited a display of inventions from the past. Richie’s favourite invention was a mangle. People used mangles to dry out clothes after they had been washed. The museum guide said now washing machines dry out clothes by spinning around really fast. My clothes are still wet when they come out of the washing machine. I think a mangle would be better. Can you help me find out which is best? Your challenge Help Richie find out the best way to separate water from his clothes. You can make models to help you decide! Discuss Have you ever washed clothes by hand? How do you get the water out of them? How does a mangle work? Why does a washing machine drum spin around really fast?

Getting started Plan what you are going to do: • Compare the amount of water you can separate from the fabric using a mangle and a washing machine drum. Think about how you can make this a fair test. • Soak two pieces of the same fabric in water. • Separate the water from one piece of fabric using your mangle and the other piece using your washing machine drum. Make a model of a washing machine drum: • First, make holes in a tub that has a lid. • Next, put this inside a bigger tub with a lid to collect the water. • Now you can spin this around at your side in a strong bag. • Remember! Don’t let go as you spin it. • A washing machine can spin around more than 1000 times every minute to separate water from your clothes. How fast can you spin your drum? Make a model mangle: • A rolling pin is a good model of a mangle. • Roll your fabric on a sloping surface. • Remember to put something underneath to collect the water! Test your ideas You might like to record your results in a table like this one: How much water was removed from the fabric? Mangle Washing machine drum spun slowly Washing machine drum spun fast Washing machine drum with lots of small holes Washing machine drum with a few small holes Washing machine drum with lots of big holes Washing machine drum with a few big holes Share your ideas Were there any problems with your tests? Why? How could you improve your tests? Take photographs of your investigation and your models. Send your pictures to Richie to help him decide how to dry his clothes. Extra things to do Find out about other things that can be separated by spinning. Find out how separating by spinning can help to generate electricity. Find out how separating by spinning can help in medicine. British Science Association Registered Charity No. 212479 and SC039236