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/).

Fossil Folly Activity

Fossil Folly Activity Card A box of bones has been delivered to Dina Digg at the Dinosaur Museum and she has tried to put them together, but she’s not sure she’s got it right. No one has ever seen a living, moving dinosaur, but lots of dinosaurs’ bones have been found. Putting them together is not always an easy job. There have been plenty of dinosaur debates about the right way to assemble a skeleton. Your challenge Can you help Dina Digg to figure out how to put the dinosaur bones together? Is it a new dinosaur, unlike any ever found before? Has she got it wrong? Discuss Do you have a favourite dinosaur? What did they look like? A few other investigators have had some ideas: I like the ostrich dinosaurs like Gallimimus. Their long legs helped them to run very fast. My favourite is the 26m long, plant-eating Diplodocus. It was built like a suspension bridge – with a very long neck and tail. Stegosaurus rules! It was a medium sized dinosaur with a solid body and short legs. It had tail spikes and defensive plates on its back. My vote goes to the agile Velociraptor. A small but deadly carnivore! It ran on two legs and had a long stiff tail that acted as a counterbalance. Iguanodon’s the one for me. It had a small head but a bulky body and a stiff tail. This meant it could stand on its back legs as well as walking on all four feet.

Getting started Make model dinosaurs to find out which combinations of body shapes are: • Most stable on two legs • Most stable on four legs • Best for reaching high leaves Which combinations work and which ones do not? Scientists compare fossil bones with the skeletons of living creatures to work out how to fit them together. Do the shapes that you made remind you of any living or extinct animals? Test your ideas Make a table to show which shapes work well together. Can you explain why? Body shape Stable on two legs Stable on four legs Good for reaching high leaves Now decide whether the dinosaur put together at the Dinosaur Museum is definitely a dinosaur or a dinosaur disaster! Share your ideas You could design a poster for Dina Digg at the Dinosaur Museum. You could include: •Drawings or photos of your dinosaurs and your ideas about why they were successful or not •Pictures of different dinosaurs that match the shapes that you have made • Explanations of why some dinosaur shapes helped them to survive. 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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