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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Silver Grand Challenges

  • Text
  • Industrial
  • Hydrogen
  • Ageing
  • Challenges
  • Crest
  • Solar
  • Reduce
  • Materials
  • Methods
  • Mobility
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/).

Ageing Society Design

Ageing Society Design for an ageing society Activity created by Project brief How can design help people lead fuller, healthier and more rewarding lives into old age? How can designers meet the challenge of a rapidly ageing society? Can you identify a problem that is faced exclusively in old age and design your own solution to it? You will need to interview three or more people above the age of 70 and find out what everyday problems they struggle with. Refine this list to one problem and come up with five potential solutions to your problem. Test all of your solutions and develop the best idea into a rough prototype. Start by interviewing three or more people over the age of 70. You’ll need to make a record of what they said and present it in your final work. Ask them some questions about their everyday life. Ask them about the tasks that they do on a regular basis. Look at the results of your interviews. Are there any common themes or problems? Can you define one main problem? Come up with five rough ideas as to how to solve the problem (you can think of more if you want). Don’t throw out any ideas; all ideas should be considered no matter how weird and wonderful. Work your ideas down to just one. Perhaps you could combine aspects of a few ideas and take the best bits from each? Create a prototype of your best idea. This just has to be a rough model. You can add functionality but remember; this is a prototype. Test your prototype with the user and report back on your findings. Talk them through your prototype and get their feedback on what they would like to see incorporated into the next iteration. Things to think about • Don’t think about any potential solutions until you have identified the problem. • Don’t get hooked on one idea too early. • Never dismiss any ideas. Even our failures teach us something. • Take the best parts of all your ideas. • Test your final design with your target user. Useful resources • Visit the Design Museum website and Dezeen to read about the Design Museum’s New Old exhibition that looked at design for an ageing population. • designmuseum.org/whatson/pop-up-exhibitions/newold • design.britishcouncil.org/blog/2 016/dec/08/mapping-researchdesign-disability-and-ageingpopu/ • dezeen.com/2017/01/12/designmuseum-new-old-exhibition-sixprojects-improve-life-olderpeople/ Health and safety To avoid any accidents, make sure you stick to the following health and safety guidelines before getting started: • find out if any of the materials, equipment or methods are hazardous using science.cleapss.org.uk/Resource s/Student-Safety-Sheets/ • assess the risks (think about what could go wrong and how serious it might be); • your solution should be sympathetic to the end user. When you are interviewing someone you must first ask their permission; • decide what you need to do to reduce any risks (such as wearing personal protective equipment, knowing how to deal with emergencies and so on); • make sure your teacher agrees with your plan and risk assessment. 16

Clean Growth Solar oven Project brief In this project you will design and make an oven to cook food using solar energy. You could use climate data to investigate further how effective your oven would be in different locations and times of year. Make a list of heating sources which are used for cooking. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each one? Find out what a solar oven is, what designs exist, where they are used and how they work. Collect together a number of examples of designs for a solar oven. Are there common elements which appear in all designs? For each example, make a note of the materials it is made from, how powerful it is and the country or climate it is designed for. Design your own solar oven to work in your own local area during a period of warmer weather. You could use the designs you have seen as inspiration. You can construct a simple solar oven out of a cardboard box and tin foil. Design a test to measure how efficient your solar oven is. You could measure the increase in temperature of a container of water. How will you make this a fair test? You might choose to repeat your experiment and keep the length of time and the volume of water the same. After each test make sure you record your results before making changes to the design to improve it. Evaluate your design. How useful is solar energy for cooking in the UK? Things to think about • Consider the materials you have used in your design. How sustainable are they? • Is your oven transportable? • What are the limitations of solar energy for cooking? Useful resources • Materials to make your oven from which might include cardboard boxes, tin foil, clean foil food containers • sunoven.com • solarcooking.org • earthobservatory.nasa.gov/feat ures/RenewableEnergy/renewa ble_energy4.php • she-inc.org Health and safety To avoid any accidents, make sure you stick to the following health and safety guidelines before getting started: • find out if any of the materials, equipment or methods are hazardous using science.cleapss.org.uk/Resourc es/Student-Safety-Sheets/ • assess the risks (think about what could go wrong and how serious it might be); • never eat or drink food in a science laboratory; • if you plan to eat the food which has been heated using a solar oven you will need to follow recommended food hygiene procedures and check the centre of the food has reached a safe temperature, as well as completing the experiment in a food tech room. • decide what you need to do to reduce any risks (such as wearing personal protective equipment, knowing how to deal with emergencies and so on); • make sure your teacher agrees with your plan and risk assessment. 17

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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