Did you know that you can use or adapt activities from the British Science Week 2023 activity packs to submit for CREST Awards?
Selected activities in the Early Years and Primary packs, indicated by a special CREST logo, can be run as part the eight activities needed for a primary school pupil to earn a Star or SuperStar CREST Award.
The Secondary pack includes activities that can inspire projects for Bronze or Silver Awards. The topics might even be a jumping off point for a Gold Award project!
Primary activities
Try ‘Plant your pants!’, created in partnership with Country Trust. This activity has children burying cotton pants (or any piece of cotton if they don’t have pants to spare!) in two types of soil, then noting how they have changed after eight weeks underground. Did the different types of soil interact with the cotton in different ways? What does this tell us?
This activity not only lets children do their favourite thing- get hands-on and messy – it also allows the engagement with the topic to span several weeks, rather than one lesson.
‘Invent like a Victorian’ is another primary activity, and this one lets children’s imaginations run wild. All you need are some coloured pens or pencils and paper, and some inspired young minds.
Children are tasked with coming up with an invention that could solve a problem in their home. They must draw and label their invention with as much detail as possible, including measurements, materials and colours. You might unearth the next best thing since slices bread!
Secondary activities
CREST Awards don’t have to be practical investigations or design and build projects, they can research pieces. A brilliant activity from the Secondary pack that could inspire some enlightening secondary CREST projects is ‘Making manifestos’, created in partnership with Simple Politics.
Young people must imagine they have created a new political party with a STEM agenda. What would their three main policy points be? From health care, to the environment, to food production policy, this project could inspire a range of fascinating ideas from your class. Today’s students are, after all, tomorrow’s politicians.
Bronze and Silver CREST Awards, Silver in particular, are designed to be conducted over several hours, from 10 hours for Bronze to 30 hours for Silver.. ‘Build your own barometer’, created in partnership with the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust, is a perfect long-term project.
Students build a barometer using household objects, then monitor it each day over several weeks, comparing it’s predictions of changes in the weather with what takes place. This could be adapted for older students by including in-depth research in changing weather patterns and how this is indicative of climate change.
All secondary projects can be designed by students themselves, and be on a STEM topic of their choice, so any of the activities in the Secondary or even Community pack could spark an idea.
To submit your students’ projects, go to our CREST sign up page, create an account and you’ll find all the details and instructions you need – it couldn’t be easier!