I love STEM subjects and when I heard of Bronze Crest I thought that this is my opportunity to research what I love. The Bronze Crest Award is an award where young students can take part and complete a project about an area in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths). I love biology and I want to be a doctor when I grow up, something that interests me is memory and the brain. So, I decided to explore ‘Why does memory deteriorate with age and how can we treat it?’.
My project had to be completed in 10 hours and written as a report and I was very organised as I had made a Gantt chart (a chart to plan out my time). After I had finished my report we had 2 weeks to make a board explaining our report so that we could present it to family and friends. I’m not quite the artistic one but I tried my best to make my board colourful and eye-catching. I made a large poster with all my information with lots of colours and pictures and added it to a large board. I also made a large title to draw in people. To make my presentation more interactive, I made a did you know section and a fun memory game.
When the day came to present our boards, Y7/8 were treated to an interactive science show by the Royal Institution that morning. The Royal Institution performed an interactive show about the 8 stores of energy which many people from my year took an active role. The best part was that we were able to see bubbles catch on fire! Then after school, we finalised our poster presentations. I had a lot of fun preparing with my friends for the celebration event and everyone’s ideas were really interesting. Lots of family and friends joined us at the event and we were treated to another science show by the Royal Institution. This time lots of parents, carers and students were able to participate in lots of fun activities like a friction tug of war and flying a rocket!
Afterwards, all the parents, carers and friends walked around the maths corridor to ask us questions about our project. I felt really nervous but everyone was really friendly and I had a lot of fun speaking to people. There were also judges walking around to decide whose Bronze CREST presentation was the most robust and detailed. When we went into the theatre we found out that all of us had achieved our Bronze CREST! We all felt really proud of ourselves after all of our hard work. We went to receive our certificate then it was announced that the judges decided that I was the winner of the best Bronze Crest! I felt really proud of myself as all my hard work had truly paid off. I recommend students to take part in bronze, silver and gold CREST awards as they really allow you to expand your learning in a creative way.
Fatimah Y8