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.

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Bronze Silver Gold Partner resources

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Make a wooden pendant

Research, design and make a wooden pendant 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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Page 1 of 2 Design and make a wooden pendant In this project your goal is to design and make a wooden pendant necklace for a friend. You will cut and shape wood to make the pendant and look at different ways of colouring it. You will also decide which material to use for the necklace chain. Getting Started Your friend has asked you to make a wooden pendant that she can wear on a necklace. She would like it to be red and ‘teardrop-shaped’. The first thing you need to do is get some wood. Make sure it’s easy to cut, and that you can shape it with a file and sandpaper. Shaping your pendant: You first need to decide how big you want the pendant to be. Cut off a piece of wood and use a file and sandpaper to make the wood the right shape. You will need to create a hole to put your chain through. You will probably need to use a drill to do this. Painting the wood: Before shaping your pendant, you should work out how you’re going to paint it. You should test about three or four different methods of colouring. That means you’ll need to cut off three or four bits of wood to be coloured. Choosing the chain: You need to put your pendant onto a chain. The things you could use include cotton thread, nylon beading thread or elastic. It’s up to you which one you choose – you may like to find out which will be the strongest. You could do this by hanging masses from the different threads and seeing which breaks first. Click to edit project description . Things to think about You should think of some different ways of painting the wood: You might like to try different types of paint - oil, water-based and emulsion, for example. You could try painting the wood and then covering it with varnish to make it shiny and to protect it. You could try using nail varnish Some people like to see the ‘grain’ of the wood, so you could also think about using ‘washes’. That’s when you put a layer of colour onto the wood, but you can still see the wood underneath. Finally, you could try making your own paint. Useful Resources Making your own paint is easy – do an online search to find out more!