Low-resource or low equipment sharing resources


The resources on this page have been selected to support educators in finding CREST project ideas that require little equipment, can be run outside of a lab or at home, and use equipment that doesn’t require much sharing.

Find out more about the different CREST Award levels here: CREST Awards.

At primary level, our curated home learning packs don’t require many resources so they’re perfect to use either in the classroom or at home. For Primary teachers who have CLEAPSS access, we recommend this piece on doing Practical activities within your bubble.

At secondary level, each project brief has an overall challenge, ideas for getting started and a list of resources you might need. Read the health and safety section carefully before you begin. Young people should create a plan for their project and a risk assessment before they begin any practical activity. You can use the CLEAPSS student safety sheets as well as the rest of the CLEAPSS website to help them.

If you are looking for further advice on how to get started with CREST, visit our help centre and check out our FAQs.

If you are looking for ideas for running CREST at home, many of the below resources are suitable, and you can still access our Star and SuperStar Home Learning packs below. If you need further support, check out the CREST at home section of the Help Centre.


To browse the resources, click the buttons below or scroll down.
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Question generation for CREST

  • Text
  • Crest
  • Relevant
  • Measurable
  • Communication
  • Analysis
  • Challenges
  • Aims
  • Generating
  • Generate
  • Topics
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/).

The method To arrive at

The method To arrive at the answer to your measurable question, you must choose one of the below as the best method to test your solution. The below are the four types of CREST project – the way you’d like to run your project will likely fall into one of these. By deciding this in advance you can prepare for what elements you’ll need to complete your project. Practical Investigation Design and Build Research Communication What is it? Typical elements Aim to answer a question, hypothesis or problem. • A question, hypothesis or problem • Project aims • Planning • Evidence • Analysis • Conclusion Aim to design and create a product that meets a specific aim. Design and Make enterprises can start with a broad scope, which is then narrowed down to something more specific. • A brief • Project aims • Designing of a solution to a specific problem • Testing, analysis, improvement and retesting of solution (multiple cycles) • Analysis of final solution • Conclusion Aim to provide a fresh perspective or strengthen an argument for a disputed STEM topic through data gathering and analysis. These are ideal for young people who are learning at home, and want to complete something on a topic of interest. They also fit well with the Extended Project Qualification. • A project brief or area to investigate • Project aims • Plans for how data will be gathered and analysed • Critical analysis of existing data • Conclusion Aim to inform a specific audience about a topic or raise their awareness and interest in STEM. If you have younger siblings, you could consider creating something that communicates a STEM topic to them in a way that makes it easy to understand. • A target audience • Background research of the topic and the audience • Design of a form of communication • Reflection and explanation of how the communication is fit for purpose, including being pitched at the correct age and level of understanding • Evaluation of their communication using appropriate measures • Conclusion

Questions to ask • What will you test? • Is there an experiment you can conduct that supports your solution? • What results are you aiming for? 3 • Do you want to build a model to support or visualise your solution? • What trends are you looking to find? • How will you collect your data? • Did you want to explore a topic to a specific audience? Did you want to raise awareness on a certain area of interest? • How are you going to address it to your audience? Example brief in the CREST library See: Bronze: What makes bread rise? See: Bronze: Bath Bomb Challenge See: Bronze: Grand Challenges – Future Jobs See: Bronze: Grand Challenges – How can you create a trustworthy machine? See: Silver: How does cooking change pasta? See: Gold: The properties of saucepans See: Silver: Make your own tea bag See: Gold: Build a pinhole camera See: Silver: Climate science – Drought Detectives See: Gold: Grand Challenges – Are we ready for driverless cars? See: Silver: Grand Challenges – Accessible Messenger See: Gold: Fruit juice or fizzy drinks? Once you have an idea and a plan for your project, you’re ready to begin. Take a look in the CREST Help Centre, our teacher or parent guides, and Silver and Gold student guides if you have any questions. You can also check out the support in the CREST resource library. 3 https://drive.google.com/file/d/10h-jQS1fJkJqr99ak-IZH3nqa9YkOHhA/view

Challenges for ages 5-11


These challenges take about an hour each. Once you have completed eight of them you can get a CREST SuperStar Award. Start by downloading the Passport. Children can use this to record each activity they complete.

Our curated packs for home learning require very little equipment or resources, so are ideal now that you are back in the classroom. They also add flexibility as students can finish their Star or SuperStar Award at home, if needed.

Each challenge has an organiser card and an activity card. All the instructions to set up the activity are in the organiser card. Read the 'watch out' section carefully before you begin. Children can use the activity card or you can read it through together.

Find out more about Star and SuperStar levels here.


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Projects for ages 11-18


Each of these projects take between ten and thirty hours to complete. The project briefs have an overall challenge, ideas for getting started and a list of resources students might need. Before they begin, students should read the health and safety section carefully. Once students have completed their projects, they can get a CREST Discovery, Bronze, Silver or Gold Award. The amount of time spent on the project and how well they met the CREST criteria determines the level students will be awarded.

Start by downloading the relevant Workbook or Profile Form below. Young people can use these to help them complete their project and record their progress.

Young people should create a plan for their project and a risk assessment before they begin any practical activity, which should be checked by a teacher. You can use the CLEAPSS student safety sheets as well as the rest of the CLEAPSS website to help them.

For Bronze projects, once a student has completed their project, you can sign up to assess it and order their personalised certificate here. Bronze assessment is incredibly easy and can also be adapted for at-home learning if needed due to unexpected lockdowns, meaning parents can always assess when teachers cannot. Check out how to assess a Bronze project here

For Silver and Gold projects student work will need to be submitted online and will be assessed by a CREST assessor. Learn more about assessment for Silver Awards here

Find out more about Bronze level here.

Find out more about Silver level here.

Find out more about Gold level here.


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