Getting students with SEND & teachers into the lab with CREST Bronze

When first starting with CREST Michaela Nelson, a laboratory manager at Bishop Burton College Beverley near Kingston upon Hull, decided that Bronze-level projects would be a great fit.

Bronze projects should take around ten hours work to complete – time that she knew could be broken down into chunks and slotted neatly into the timetable.

To earn a Bronze CREST Award, students usually focus on one topic but, as Michaela would be working with students with special education needs and disabilities (SEND), she felt the level of in-depth work this requires might not be suitable, so she thoughtfully adapted it to be three shorter projects.

We spoke to Michaela and her colleague Jack Lamb about adapting CREST to be engaging for all learners, and the importance of giving students the space to take initiative and be creative.

“Having three small projects that lasted four to five weeks each was enough time to give them to plan a research project, complete the practical work and write up the results”, Michaela told us. "That worked really well."

The projects covered different areas of STEM, two were taken from the CREST Resource Library; Testing toothpastes and Bath bomb challenge.

Michaela came up with the idea for the third project herself: Investigating microbes. “The idea came from the curriculum as our students have modules on healthcare.” She told us.

It was a way of discussing bacteria… It made a really good research project, that went down well with the students.

Michaela contacted the CREST team at the British Science Association (BSA) to discuss her idea of breaking a Bronze project into manageable chunks:

Having the adaptability on the CREST Awards that you don't need to do one project, that the CREST team were happy for me to split it up to work with my students so you could work at a pace that they wanted to was great.

A key part of earning a Bronze CREST Award is filling in a Bronze workbook, which asks for details about the aims of the projects, possible methods, why students used their chosen method, how they kept tests fair, and more – it’s a comprehensive document.

Michaela knew this type of work might be a little too challenging for the students she was working with, but again found CREST resources to be adaptable.

We've definitely used the Bronze CREST workbook as a template, but we've just changed the wording so it's a bit more SEND-friendly. The students have to write what they've done, but we told them they can write it in bullet points and draw labelled diagrams, rather than big blocks of text.

Michaela told us that at first students needed a lot of support to write about their experiments, but by the time they came to do it for the third time:

They've got the confidence and the skills by filling in the workbook twice before to do it themselves, and that's really nice to see.

A fundamental part of CREST project work is that it is student-led; it is an opportunity for young people to behave like real scientists and engineers.

Michaela’s students thoroughly enjoyed this aspect of the work, throwing themselves into deciding how to run the experiment. Michaela gave them options to give the projects structure but encouraged them to contribute ideas and pursue the ones they were most interested in.

They really feel that they've designed the project themselves because they've had an input into it. They're more engaged in it because they've planned it themselves.

Jack echoed Michaela’s thoughts:

Each student group was encouraged to take ownership of their investigation… This approach not only deepened their understanding of experimental design but also allowed them to explore scientific questions that genuinely interested them.

Michaela said deeper engagement carried on throughout the whole project and beyond:

Now they come in asking what we're doing next week…their enthusiasm is contagious.

The next stage after completing CREST project work and submitting it, is students receiving their Award certificates.

This can really cement a feeling a pride and accomplishment in young people – special recognition of their work that can be taken home and displayed. Michaela told us that when the students at Bishop Burton College were presented their Bronze certificates they had “big, big grins on their faces”.

The certificate is really nice, which I think it makes it feel it's a quality certificate. I think that makes a difference.