Typically completed by 3-11 year olds, CREST Star and SuperStar challenges relate to everyday experiences. Children complete six to 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.
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/).
Sneeze zone Activity
Sneeze zone Activity Card Cosmic has a cold. Gem “If you cover your nose and mouth when you sneeze or cough then other people are less likely to catch your cold. That’s because when you sneeze you spray the microbes that are causing your cold!” Is Gem right? Your challenge Can you help Cosmic and Gem? See if you can measure the distance and impact of a sneeze, simulated using water in a spray bottle to find out if covering your sneeze makes a difference. Discuss Do you cover your sneeze? If you do, do you cover your nose or your mouth? How far do you think the tiny droplets from your sneeze can travel?
Getting started How will you test your ideas to see which works best? Test your ideas How will you record your findings? Could you make a table or a graph to show your results? Perhaps you could use a table like the one below: Sneeze covering technique Distance travelled by sneeze droplets No covering Cover with hand Cover with tissue Share your ideas Tell the rest of the group about your results. Do you think your experiment was fair? Could you do anything to improve it? Will you change anything about the way you sneeze in the future? Extra things to do If one person doesn’t cover their nose, andthe person who catches the cold also doesn’t cover their nose, how many people do you think will catch the cold? British Science Association Registered Charity No. 212479 and SC039236
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.
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.
