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/).

Disappearing Dinosaurs

Disappearing Dinosaurs Activity Card This is Dina Digg’s favourite dinosaur poem. She loves a mystery, and this is a big one! Triceratops has one short horn, and two as long as spears. It dwelled near scores of carnosaurs, and yet it had no fears. Triceratops was dangerous, impervious and strong. The predators that challenged it did not last very long. Triceratops fought valiantly, and vanquished every foe. So why it ever disappeared nobody seems to know. Poem from Tyrannosaurus Was a Beast: Dinosaur by Jack Prelutsky. Your challenge Dinosaurs roamed the earth for 165 million years, but 65 million years ago they all became extinct. What happened to them? Why did they die out? Plan a dino debate to discuss the different extinction theories. Discuss People have been arguing for years about what happened to the dinosaurs. Dina Digg has been collecting their ideas. Here are some of them. A massive asteroid hit the earth! There was an ice age. The climate changed. It got cooler and drier. Huge volcanoes erupted. Disease wiped them all out. Aliens invaded from another planet and killed them all.

Getting started Make a flyer advertising the discussion. What will you call it? ‘Who Dunnit to the Dinos?’ ‘Dinosaur Doomsday?’ or something else? Include some information about each extinction theory. Make sure it sounds like a lively, interesting debate! Are there any dinosaur books in the library? Can you find out any interesting information on the internet? You could record your research in a grid like this one, with reasons for and against each theory. 2/2 For Against Asteroid hit the earth Ice age Volcanoes erupted Climate changed Disease wiped them out Aliens invaded Test your ideas What scientific evidence is there to back up each theory? Why would each theory have led to the death of the dinos? What more do you need to know? Can you uncover any other theories? Maybe it was a combination of factors that meant bad luck for the dinosaurs. Not every creature died. Why did some creatures including frogs, crocodiles and some mammals survive? Did any dinosaurs evolve into creatures that are alive today? Many scientists think birds are descended from dinosaurs. What evidence is there? Share your ideas Why not present your poster to the class, or use it as a wall display? British Science Association Registered Charity No. 212479 and SC039236