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/).

OVER TO YOU Over to You

OVER TO YOU Over to You Organiser’s Card About the activity OVER TO YOU This activity is designed to get children thinking about adhesives and using their creativity. The children have been given two news articles about the scientific inspiration and the principles behind sticky tape and glue. Can they think of good uses for these sticky things? This is designed to be a creative, ideas generating activity that will stretch some children’s imaginations and their ability to think scientifically and ‘outside the box’. Through this activity you will support your group to: • Read stories of genuine scientific research. • Recognise that new materials and products may be the result of chance experimentation. • Understand how scientists may spend many years researching and developing their ideas into a final product. • Help to find uses for innovative and unusual inventions. Kit list • Access to the internet and/or books What to do 1. Read the ACTIVITY CARD to familiarise yourself with the activity. 2. Set the scene by discussing the news articles with the children. 3. Help the children to identify what the problem is. 4. Encourage children to talk together to develop their own ideas. 5. Encourage children who may want to do extra research via the internet etc. 6. Encourage children to make their own records. This might include creating a poster to advertise their ideas and to persuade people to buy them.

Things to think about In this activity, there are no right or wrong answers. Children should be encouraged to think creatively and develop their own unusual or innovative ideas. At the end of the activity, you may like to tell the children that the ‘glue that would not set’ was used to make the Post-it note. Ten years after Spencer Silver invented his unusual glue, Post-it notes were being sold all over the world. The stories in the ‘Extra things to do’ section on ACTIVITY CARD may leave the children guessing but they probably worked out that: George de Mestral’s sticky fastener is the material we all know and love – Velcro. Walter Diemer’s sticky pink recipe is a children’s favourite – bubble gum. Keywords • Glue • Adhesives • Invention • Imagination. 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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