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:


England

Northern Ireland

Scotland

Wales


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

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5 years ago

Design the ultimate toothbrush

  • Text
  • Toothbrushes
  • Toothbrush
  • Properties
  • Bristles
  • Shapes
  • Materials
  • Investigate
  • Ideal
  • Findings
  • Bends
Investigate what makes the ideal toothbrush and design your own. 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/). For more information visit our Terms and Conditions (www.crestawards.org/terms-and-conditions).

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Click to edit project description

Page 1 of 2 Design the ultimate toothbrush In this project, you will research and test the properties of a range of different toothbrushes. You will then use your findings to help you design the ultimate toothbrush. Getting Started To start this project, it may be a good idea to look at a range of different toothbrushes available. Things to look at include: • What different shapes do they have? What do they claim to do? Certain bends or bristle shapes are supposed to reach areas that other brushes can’t reach. Things to think about You could conduct some tests to determine whether toothbrushes are necessary. Perhaps try to see if a piece of cloth can clean as well as a brush.. • How many ‘grades’ of hardness there are for the bristles • Which are the most expensive? How does the price of regular toothbrushes compare to electric toothbrushes? • What other products are available for teeth-cleaning purposes? Testing toothbrushes: Select some toothbrushes to test. Think about the properties you want to test. For each property, you will need to devise an experiment. Think about why toothbrushes have to have certain properties, and whether there are certain standards that have to be met in industry when manufacturing them. For example, can bristles be too hard or too soft? Which is best? When testing the toothbrushes, make sure you try to obtain quantitative data. Drawing conclusions: When you’ve conducted tests on a range of toothbrushes, draw some conclusions about the value of different products. Are some toothbrushes significantly better than others? Click to edit project description Designing your own: When you’ve tested a range of properties you should have some ideas about which features were the best. Try to design the ultimate brush using the results of your research and testing. Think about the materials you would use, and the cost of manufacturing. Also think about how to mass produce your toothbrush. Explain how you could use computer aided manufacture (CAM) to automate the process. Useful Resources You could try to link up with an engineer (or similar) from a toothbrush manufacturer, they should be able to tell you what properties are tested in industry and how. Local universities may also be useful, as they are likely to have more advanced testing equipment for you to use. Some examples of the properties you may wish to test include: • The shape of the toothbrush head and the area and density of bristles on the head • Flexibility of the handle – measure how easily and how much they bend before they break. • Strength and wear resistance of the bristles • Their ‘reach’ – in other words, do some toothbrushes reach areas that others don’t? Will you test your toothbrush on people or on something else? Is it safe to test on people? • How well they clean • How abrasive they are - could they damage teeth and gums?

Bronze level

Ten hour projects recommended for ages 11+. Find out more about this level and how to gain a CREST Award on the Bronze Awards page.


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Bronze

Silver level

Thirty hour projects recommended for ages 14+. Find out more about this level and how to gain a CREST Award on the Silver Award page.


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Silver

Gold level

Seventy hour projects recommended for ages 16+. Find out more about this level and how to gain a CREST Award on the Gold Awards page


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Gold

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