Resources by CREST Awards

Make your own toothpaste and compare it with other brands

A Silver CREST Award activity which focuses  on students making toothpaste and modifying ingredients.  Students review flavouring and consider design aspects.

Serious Study with Amateur Sleuthing

By the British Science Association, the CREST awards help students to tackle science with an investigative approach. This case study describes how Year Seven students at Downlands Community College undertook a 'crime scene investigation' simulation.

The activity allowed students to gain a bronze CREST Award...

Silver award: are some jeans tougher than others?

This resource describes an independent research project investigating the strength of jeans.  Students could test the strength of seams in a pair of denim jeans, the tear resistance of denim, or try to work out how easily denim wears down by rubbing it on a rough surface. This will...

Silver award: art restoration

This resource describes 30 hours of independent project work for a silver Crest Award on the subject of art restoration.  Students start by carrying out some research about paint pigments:

• What did early artists use? How did they colour their paints? What pigments were available to them?
• ...

Silver award: build a model pirate ship ride

In this project students research theme park rides and design and build a model of the pirate ship ride, concentrating on how to support the swinging parts.  Another vital component is the support that holds the gondola and the counterweight. ...

Silver award: build a robot

In this project, students will build a simple robot, for example using Lego or Meccano, that they can steer with switches. They could then adapt it to perform a ‘useful’ task.

Silver award: can you improve the shelf life of a fizzy drink?

Traditional fizzy drinks were made by fermentation using yeast. In this project, students make some fermented fizzy drinks investigate the effect of using additives and varying...

Silver award: comparing oral re-hydration therapies

In this independent research project students research the causes and consequences of diarrhoea and dehydration. They find out about the different treatments available for dehydration and design some experiments to compare commercial and homemade oral rehydration salts.

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Silver award: design and build a disco light

How do the lights and sound at a nightclub coordinate together? The lights appear to flash in time to the beat, and change colour with the pattern of the sound. How is the signal from a sound source such as a CD player or DJ deck converted into a pattern of lights? In this project,...

Silver award: design and build a model catamaran

In this project, students will design and build a simple model catamaran. They will then use their model to test the effectiveness of a range of different types of sail.