Primary challenges (ages 3-11)


Typically completed by 3-11 year olds, CREST Star and SuperStar challenges relate to everyday experiences. Children complete eight activities to gain a CREST Award, with each activity taking between 45 minutes and one hour to complete.

The activities are designed to be easy-to-run and low-cost. You don’t need to be a teacher, have a science background or have access to specialist equipment to run them. The packs contain helpful hints and tips for you to use, explaining the scientific themes and offering guidance on conversation topics for your children.

There are more CREST approved resources that have been developed by our partners and providers specific to your region.


To browse the packs, click the buttons below or scroll down.

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All SuperStar challenges

  • Text
  • Handson
  • Stem
  • Challenges
  • Discussion
  • Explore
  • Create
  • Experiment
  • Investigate
  • Toothpaste
  • Materials
  • Glue
  • Tomato
  • Yoghurt
  • Superstar
The activities in this pack have been selected from our library of CREST SuperStar challenges. Children need to complete eight challenges to achieve a CREST SuperStar Award. If you want, you can mix and match challenges from different packs, as long as children complete eight SuperStar challenges. 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/).

IGATING INK

IGATING INK INVESTIGATING INK Investigating Ink Activity Card INVESTIGATING INK NEWSINVESTIGATING INK Cocker Spaniel caught up in Canine Crime Spree Earlier this week, Lady Felicity Feline received a ransom note demanding £100,000 for the safe return of Colin, her prize-winning cocker spaniel. Detectives have seized black pens from four prime suspects so that they can carry out ink investigations to find out who sent the note. “Someone had splashed a drop of water on the note and we spotted something very interesting,” Inspector Khan told our reporter. “With a bit of help we should soon have Colin back.” Your challenge The four main suspects are: Ivor Swagbag Robyn Banks Kitty Catburglar Nick Goods Help the detectives to match the ink from the ransom note to one of the suspects’ pens to find out who has Colin the Cocker Spaniel.

NVESTIGATING INK Discuss What ways could you use to tell the difference between the black pens? Drop water on black ink and watch what happens. How might this help to solve the crime? Getting started Pens write differently and the colour of the ink can vary. Perhaps you can see these differences if you look closely. If you have explored what water does to some ink, can you use what you have found out to investigate the suspects’ pens? This process is called chromatography. Test your ideas One way to test the ink is to drip water onto a sample of the ransom note. Watch what happens. Compare this with blobs of ink from the suspects’ pens. Try to gather as much different evidence as you can. Can you find out who the dog napper is? Share your ideas Why not make a wanted poster which includes all the evidence to help detectives track down the criminal you have identified? Extra things to do Is it only black pens that you can test with chromatography? Are there other things that are coloured that you can test such as jelly beans or food colouring? Are there other ways of doing chromatography? British Science Association Registered Charity No. 212479 and SC039236

Star level

Collections of one hour challenges recommended for children aged 3-7 years that relate to children’s everyday experiences. Find out more about this level and how to gain a CREST Award on the CREST Star page.


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SuperStar level


Collections of one hour challenges recommended for children aged 7-11 years that relate to broader situations that children are likely to have come across. Find out more about this level and how to gain a CREST Award on the CREST SuperStar page.


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