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/).

Colorado Brown Stain

Colorado Brown Stain Organiser’s Card About the activity This activity is designed to get children discussing and debating the use of fluoride in drinking water. This is designed to be a challenging, research-based activity where children use real data in a realistic context. The children have been given the story of the Colorado Brown Stain the dentist who discovered the benefits of fluoride for teeth. They must weigh up whether they would put fluoride in the water. Through this activity you will support your group to: • Look at a piece of genuine scientific research • Think about an authentic scientific problem • Recognise that there is often more than one view about the application of scientific research • Sort ideas and draw conclusions. Kit list • Copies of the ACTIVITY CARD to cut up and sort peoples’ opinions • Scissors, glue sticks, sugar paper and pens • Access to the internet • Access to books about teeth What to do 1. Introduce the activity using the diary of Dr. Frederick McKay. 2. Give out activity cards to the children. 3. Explain that they will be exploring the different arguments about putting fluoride in drinking water. Help the children to identify what the problem is. 5. Support children to conduct extra research and to record this. 6. Ask the children to present their findings to the rest of the group, they can be as creative in their presentation as they want. If children want to write a script for a TV programme they may need some support to decide how to do this. 4. Encourage children to talk together while they sort out the statements. Give extra support if you feel that children need it.

Things to think about Some children may find it difficult to understand that people may have very different ideas about putting fluoride in water. You may need to explain to them that people sometimes exaggerate things to get their view across. Children will probably need to be reminded that there can be more than one view about the application of scientific research. Support whatever conclusion they come to, provided that they can justify their ideas. Keywords • Fluoride • Opinions • Additives • Water British Science Association Registered Charity No. 212479 and SC039236