What is it?

CREST Star Investigators is a brand new, UK-wide award scheme that enables children to solve scientific problems through practical investigation. The activities focus on thinking about, talking about, and doing science. They are designed to be used primarily outside of class time (e.g. in a science club), though some are suitable for use in the classroom. The activities develop children’s scientific enquiry skills in an enjoyable context with links to the National Curriculum where appropriate.

The scheme replaces the popular First Investigators and Young Investigators schemes from September 2007 and is suitable for children, usually aged from 5 to 11, of all abilities.

What's new?

New exciting investigations include Sniffly sneezes, Worm charming, and Sticky situations. Popular activities from the First and Young Investigators schemes have been retained and updated.

The scheme includes:

• Star Logs to record children’s progress through each level.
• Stickers that go into the Star Log after completion of each activity.
• Badges and certificates to mark the end of each level.
• Support materials for organisers.

Support materials

The ACTIVITY CARDS for children feature a problem in a format that is relevant to the lives of the children: e.g. stories and newspaper articles, and printed versions of websites, text messages and emails, to capture the imagination before posing a challenge.

The ORGANISER’S information features step by step instructions for running the activity, with highlighted safety points and a resource list. Clear and informative guidance with each activity makes it easy for those without a science background to conduct the session.

Discussion and communication

Each activity includes opportunities for children to discuss and share ideas. Children are encouraged to communicate their findings in a variety of ways, making the investigations suitable for children with English as a second language and those with lower literacy levels.

 To download the information leaflet, click here