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/).

SURPRISING STAINS

SURPRISING STAINS Surprising Stains Activity Card Frank, Cosmic and Gem love blackberries. There are blackberries in the hedges near where they live. They have collected large bowls full of the dark, juicy fruit. Then, they look at their white tee shirts. Oh no! They are covered in blackberry stains. Cosmic rushes to the sink and gets some soap to wash them out. Gem sprinkles her stains with lemon juice. “Look what’s happened to the stains! They have change colour” commented Cosmic. “So have mine! Why did that happen?” asked Gem. “How fascinating! We need to do some investigating. I think a little chemistry might help” answered Frank. Your challenge Find out what has happened to the stains on Cosmic and Gem’s tee shirts. Discuss Talk to your buddy about what you think might have happened.

Getting started Here is what Frank thinks you need to do first. Squash some blackberries in a little water to get the juice out of them. Put a bit of blackberry juice on two saucers or in small containers. Add a little soap to the juice in one container and see what happens. Now add lemon juice to the blackberry juice in the other container. SURPRISING STAINS Compare the colours. Now try adding other things to blackberry juice To carry out the tests you will need: Blackberries - you do not need a lot of juice (you could use ripe blackcurrants instead) Saucers or small containers Spoons Lemon juice (bottled is fine) Liquid soap A selection from lime juice, vinegar, fizzy drinks, apple juice, white grape juice, orange juice, crushed rhubarb, cream of tartar, yoghurt etc. (optional) Other dark coloured plants You may want to use a table like this to record your findings: What we added Soap Lemon juice What happened You may also want to try: Raspberries Blackberries Beetroot Red cabbage Purple sprouting broccoli Cherries Red onion skins Blueberries Red grape juice What else would you like to try?