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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3 years ago

Question generation for CREST

  • Text
  • Crest
  • Relevant
  • Measurable
  • Communication
  • Analysis
  • Challenges
  • Aims
  • Generating
  • Generate
  • Topics
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/).

The method To arrive at

The method To arrive at the answer to your measurable question, you must choose one of the below as the best method to test your solution. The below are the four types of CREST project – the way you’d like to run your project will likely fall into one of these. By deciding this in advance you can prepare for what elements you’ll need to complete your project. Practical Investigation Design and Build Research Communication What is it? Typical elements Aim to answer a question, hypothesis or problem. • A question, hypothesis or problem • Project aims • Planning • Evidence • Analysis • Conclusion Aim to design and create a product that meets a specific aim. Design and Make enterprises can start with a broad scope, which is then narrowed down to something more specific. • A brief • Project aims • Designing of a solution to a specific problem • Testing, analysis, improvement and retesting of solution (multiple cycles) • Analysis of final solution • Conclusion Aim to provide a fresh perspective or strengthen an argument for a disputed STEM topic through data gathering and analysis. These are ideal for young people who are learning at home, and want to complete something on a topic of interest. They also fit well with the Extended Project Qualification. • A project brief or area to investigate • Project aims • Plans for how data will be gathered and analysed • Critical analysis of existing data • Conclusion Aim to inform a specific audience about a topic or raise their awareness and interest in STEM. If you have younger siblings, you could consider creating something that communicates a STEM topic to them in a way that makes it easy to understand. • A target audience • Background research of the topic and the audience • Design of a form of communication • Reflection and explanation of how the communication is fit for purpose, including being pitched at the correct age and level of understanding • Evaluation of their communication using appropriate measures • Conclusion

Questions to ask • What will you test? • Is there an experiment you can conduct that supports your solution? • What results are you aiming for? 3 • Do you want to build a model to support or visualise your solution? • What trends are you looking to find? • How will you collect your data? • Did you want to explore a topic to a specific audience? Did you want to raise awareness on a certain area of interest? • How are you going to address it to your audience? Example brief in the CREST library See: Bronze: What makes bread rise? See: Bronze: Bath Bomb Challenge See: Bronze: Grand Challenges – Future Jobs See: Bronze: Grand Challenges – How can you create a trustworthy machine? See: Silver: How does cooking change pasta? See: Gold: The properties of saucepans See: Silver: Make your own tea bag See: Gold: Build a pinhole camera See: Silver: Climate science – Drought Detectives See: Gold: Grand Challenges – Are we ready for driverless cars? See: Silver: Grand Challenges – Accessible Messenger See: Gold: Fruit juice or fizzy drinks? Once you have an idea and a plan for your project, you’re ready to begin. Take a look in the CREST Help Centre, our teacher or parent guides, and Silver and Gold student guides if you have any questions. You can also check out the support in the CREST resource library. 3 https://drive.google.com/file/d/10h-jQS1fJkJqr99ak-IZH3nqa9YkOHhA/view

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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