Typical project timeline
Typical project timeline Featured Bronze project Planning and research 2- 10 hours Make sure your students spend some time undertaking background research on the topic they are exploring. Get your students to plan their approach to the project – this might change, but it’s still important to record their initial thoughts. Consider finding a mentor (see page 11). Make your own toothpaste In this project, students will make their own toothpaste and compare it to other commercially available toothpastes. Students then develop a recipe and write a standard operating procedure so that anyone can make the toothpaste. Get a taste of the resource with the below extract: First things first, you need a recipe for toothpaste. You could find your own on the internet - try searching for ‘homemade toothpaste’. Undertaking the project 6- 40 hours Get your students working on their design/ practical investigation or other project work. They should record their progress and any changes to the approach. Get their mentor involved if they have one! You could do a taste test with your toothpaste by asking your classmates to taste a little bit of it (but don’t swallow!) and say what they think. They should do the same with other types of toothpaste – don’t tell them which is which! Look at all the things your classmates said about the different toothpastes and decide if you think your recipe needs to be changed slightly. For example, you might want to add a little bit more flavour or add a different colour. Reflecting and evaluating 2- 10 hours Get your students to reflect on the work they have done. CREST assessors are looking for the creative process of the project, so make sure the students reflect on their work and how they could have improved it. An unsuccessful science experiment does not equal an unsuccessful CREST project! Download the full activity from the CREST library at: http://library.crestawards.org 12 13
