Making STEM accessible to all students with Engage Grants

Students really love the activities, and feel proud and accomplished.

This is Nancy Turnbull, a science teacher at Moorside High School in Salford, speaking to us about the CREST Discovery challenges she ran with her Key Stage 3 students earlier this year.

Following three days of STEM activities during British Science Week 2025, Nancy submitted for over 100 Discovery Awards for her students in Years 7, 8 and 9 – a remarkable achievement for the young people.

This was made possible by an Engage Grant Nancy had applied for and received from us at the British Science Association (the non-profit which runs CREST) – funding which allows schools in challenging circumstance to have their students take part in CREST challenges and earn an Award.

The Grant covers £350 worth of Awards, and schools are given an additional £350 to cover other expenses involved including resources, equipment and teacher cover.

We spoke to Nancy about the activities she ran, the skills she saw students developing, and how she was able to take the opportunity of doing CREST challenges during British Science Week to reach and engage the students with SEND at Moorside.

The theme for British Science Week 2025 was ‘Change and adapt’; Nancy took inspiration from this for the challenges young people did to earn their Discovery Awards. After researching how animals have adapted over the last 100 years, the students got creative:

They went on to create their own animals with imaginary habitats and imaginary adaptations. Students then shared their findings and creations with the class.

The challenges and activities had been designed to be accessible and enjoyable for students with SEND.

While not a special school, Moorside offers comprehensive support for students with SEND including specialist Learning Support Staff who can work with students in and outside the classroom.

Nancy wanted to boost these students’ confidence, “allowing them to feel more comfortable and welcomed in mainstream lessons as they develop their STEM skills and knowledge”.

She found challenges which fit the criteria for Discovery Awards to be the perfect vehicle.

Of the students with SEND in Years 7, 8 and 9 Nancy told us:

They really enjoyed the activities and found the activities accessible.

She continued:

They also started enjoying science lessons and started asking to attend more mainstream science lessons.

Building confidence in STEM is one of the key benefits of CREST projects and challenges. They give students autonomy to design their experiments, and to run their own research and investigations.

Challenges often also involve speaking in front of classmates, showcasing findings. This can be a daunting task for many students, but one that becomes easier with practice.

Nancy told us:

I was quite amazed by some students shifting from being silent to taking ownership over their project, even going as far as presenting their work in front of others.

These qualities, of taking ownership of work and confidence presenting, will be highly beneficial for students in every subject and indeed in higher education and the workplace.

Another to route to imbuing confidence in STEM in students with SEND, and in fact students across the board, is to show them how cross-curricular it is.

Students can feel that science ‘isn’t for them’, perhaps they flourish more in humanities subjects. Showing them how science links to these subjects can inspire more positive feeling around STEM subjects.   
Nancy took the opportunity of doing CREST Discovery challenges during British Science Week to bring other subjects into science lessons.

Students created artistic pieces that showed adaptations in nature; explored historical examples of human adaptation, like agriculture or urban planning and looked at animal adaptations from a global perspective. 

Nancy said this aspect of the activities was a success:

Many times, people feel science is this abstract standalone subject, but it relates to everything! And getting students to see the different links science has with maths, English, history is quite interesting.

Over 100 students received CREST Discovery Awards, which Nancy told us made them feel proud and accomplished; she hopes to run CREST again next year. This achievement would not have been possible at Moorside, Nancy said, were it not for Engage funding:

Without the Engage Grant, we would not have been able to deliver our British Science Week activities. Our activities were built around the CREST project, and it made a big difference for us to be able to engage in such an activity on a large scale.

She continued:

I think teachers should not be afraid to apply for the Engage Grant because it allows students an opportunity they may not ever have.

You can apply for an Engage Grant or Engage Simply CREST now.

Check out our eligibility criteria and apply by 14 October.