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

Make your own tea bag

  • Text
  • Shapes
  • Ideal
  • Properties
  • Suitable
  • Methods
  • Teabags
  • Sizes
  • Teabag
  • Shops
  • Supermarket
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

Make your own tea bag You can buy teabags in all sorts of shapes and sizes, in this project you will design the ideal teabag. You will need to think about what your teabag should be made from, what shape it should be and how much tea it should contain. Getting Started Start by having a look around the shops at all the different types of tea bags that are available. Carry out some research into how tea bags are made. Research what happens between when tea leaves are picked, and when tea bags land on our supermarket shelves. Find out if there are different processes for different types of tea. Designing your bag: Decide how much tea should be in each bag. You could do this by taking the tea from different tea bags and working out the average amount of tea. The material: You need to think about what properties the material should have. You may want to design some tests to check the materials’ suitability. For example: You need something porous so the tea will steep in the water (you could try to actually measure porosity). It shouldn’t disintegrate or break easily when wet. It should be non-toxic. A couple of suitable examples are muslin and cotton. Think about how you will cut and join your materials. You may want to design some tests to check your joining methods work. Click to edit project description The tea tests: You need to think about what properties the material should have. You may want to design some tests to check the materials’ suitability. For example: Make sure you make the tea bags the same size and shape. A simple design will be best at this stage – you don’t want to go sewing fancy shapeddesigns when you’re just checking the material! Things to think about Make sure you use the same amount and temperature of water. Decide whether or not you will stir the tea. How you will decide when the tea has brewed - for example, will you wait until it turns a certain colour? Make sure you use the same type and amount of tea leaf in each tea bag - you could buy a packet of loose tea to make sure you’re using the same type each time. Useful Resources You might also like to visit local universities or other places with suitable equipment to find out if there are more accurate ways of measuring UV. A weather centre, perhaps from the closest regional television station, may be able to help. The shape: The range of shapes you test is up to you. You could test the already available types (square, round, pyramid, for example) or you could make totally new designs. Think about the size of the tea bag - should it be large, so the tea moves around freely inside, or should it be small, so the tea is packed tightly within? When you’ve designed a few bag shapes, about five should be enough, make the tea bags using your chosen material. Then carry out the same tests as when you were testing the materials. Combine your results and you should have the perfect quick brew tea bag!

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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