Five productive Year 7s and 8s, Sebastian B, William L, George R, Nuala M, and Jai S have utilised their Science Club activity time to complete an accredited Bronze CREST Award.
Managed by the British Science Association, the CREST Awards aim to inspire young people to think and behave like scientists and engineers. Available to anyone aged 5-19, CREST Awards enable children to explore and enhance their scientific and or technical knowledge, whilst introducing participants to the language and methods of project work.
The CREST Awards support six levels from Star (typically for 5 – 7-year-olds) to Gold (usually undertaken by students aged 16+), with the amount and complexity of work required to gain an award increasing at each level. CREST projects generally fall under one of the following four project types: practical investigation, design & make, research, and communication projects.
The successful Prep School pupils had to spend over 10 hours each of investigation time to contribute to their group work and complete their ‘how to make roller coaster go faster’ project.
Over the course of their practical project, the team spent time considering how to positively influence all of the various speed influencers including the track height, angle and shape as well as car design including shape and mass.
Putting their physics knowledge and design skills to the test the five engineers developed their own investigation, developed their testing criteria (including how to measure the speed of their car), recorded their findings and reflected on their learnings.
Prep School Science teacher and CREAST facilitator Mrs Royall said: ‘Our five award winners have worked really hard to achieve their Bronze accreditation. They have fully embraced the ethos of the awards, developing independent and reflective learner skills through their enquiry-based project work. Crest Awards are extremely valuable to our pupils as they are respected and recognised by universities and employees, and can be used in conjunction with DofE and EPQs as achievements to be added to pupil’s portfolios and enhance their UCAS statements.’
A new cohort of Prep School pupils will soon be attempting to achieve Gold Crest Awards, which involves 70 or more hours of group work, leading to a written report which is externally assessed by a BSA representative.