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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1 year ago

Star On a Shoestring

  • Text
  • Cosmic
  • Plants
  • Timers
  • Association
  • Rainbow
  • Cans
  • Materials
  • Registered
  • Colours
  • Crest
  • Shoestring
  • Resource
  • Librarycrestawardsorg
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/).

Your challenge Cosmic

Your challenge Cosmic and Gem want to make a timer to take into the garden. Have you ever seen a sand timer? How do you think a sand timer works? Uncle Astro thinks you’ll need a lot of sand to measure one minute Gem thinks you only need a little bit of sand Cosmic thinks it might depend on the size of the hole in the timer What do you think? Make a sand timer that will run for one minute every time you use it. Discuss TESTING TIMERS Talk to your buddy about what you think might have happened. Getting started Make different size holes in the bottom of paper cups with the point of a pencil. (Safety – ask an adult for help). Explore what happens when you put sand in the cups. You can catch the sand in another cup. How do you think you can stop the sand getting out too soon? Choose one of the cups. See if you can make the sand run for exactly one minute. Try each of the cups. What makes a difference to how long it takes the sand to come out? How much sand takes one minute? Is it the same for each cup? Test your ideas Can you think of other ways to make a sand timer? Share your ideas Try out your timer by playing the ‘ball and bucket’ game with your friends. Draw some pictures or take photographs to show how to make a sand timer. Show how you can improve your timer. . Extra things to do Try putting more holes in your timer and see what happens. What else can you use to make a timer? Where do you find sand timers? What are they used for? British Science Association Registered Charity No. 212479 and SC039236 32

USELESS UMBRELLA Useless Umbrella Organiser’s Card About the activity This activity is designed to get children thinking about materials and their water resistance. Aunt Stella is going to a party at Buckingham Palace. She is going to take a beautiful, big, rainbow umbrella with her in case it rains. Gem has rushed into the garden with the umbrella to try it out. It’s raining. Oh no! The umbrella is leaking. Gem is getting very wet. How can they fix USELESS UMBRELLA the umbrella for Aunt Stella? Through this activity you will support your group to: • Design an experiment to test how waterproof different materials are • Carry out their experiment and observe what happens • Decide on the best material for an umbrella and share their ideas. Kit list • Selection of fabrics and other materials e.g. plastic, sponge, foil, card and wood. Try to make sure some of the fabrics are waterproof. (Pieces from a broken umbrella or raincoat would be good) • Droppers or pipettes • Water coloured with food dye • Beakers or jars • Paper towels • Picture–making materials, podium sheets, Useless umbrella sheets. See website - www.britishscienceassociation.org/creststar What to do 1. Read the story on the Activity Card. Get the children to talk to a buddy about the ideas in the questions and the opinions of Cosmic, Gem and Aunt Stella. 2. Provide the children with a selection of different pieces of fabric and other materials to test, some examples are in the Kit list. 3. Talk through how they might find out if the fabrics are waterproof. Encourage them to explore their own ideas and think about fair testing e.g. use the same amount of water, use the same size pieces of fabric, leave the water on the fabric for the same amount of time, decide when and whether to touch the fabrics. 4. When they have finished they can put the best materials on the winners’ podium and talk about why these were waterproof. The children could design an umbrella and evaluate which designs will work and why. They can make a picture showing Cosmic and Gem under an umbrella made out of the most appropriate materials. They could also put the materials on the winners’ podium? 5. There are follow up activities for children who have finished or who want to do more finding out at home and earn a bonus sticker 33

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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