1. Youth Voice
Getting a fresh perspective on your projects
Welcome

2. The CREST Expansion
 CREST is the British Science Association’s flagship programme for 11-19 year
olds
 The scheme aims to:
o Give young people a framework to develop their passions for science,
technology, engineering and maths (STEM) through project work
o Help young people discover what it’s like to work on STEM-based
problems in industry and academe
o Develop aspiration to study and work in STEM-based fields
 The CREST scheme received a grant from the Department for Education in
2009 to expand its reach – this included support to develop a Youth Voice
strand.
“This scheme is a wonderful means to give young people a start in life and a spring-board to
develop their careers in a scientific field.”
Dr. Tim Sandle, Bio Products Laboratory
www.britishscienceassociation.org/crest

3. Youth Voice
 Split into two areas – CREST Alumni and CREST Youth Panel
 Advice - from Graphic Science on Youth Panel best practice and looking at other
youth events underway already
 Aims – these have changed subtly over the three years, but generally focus of
getting young peoples input to help improve our own in house projects while
offering them and experience or skills they can benefit from and monitoring how
the experience of CREST and the like might affect what they go on to do post
school
 Benefits to the Association – making sure we are fulfilling the expectation of our
audiences, allowing young people a fair say in projects and monitoring the impact
of our projects in the long term
 Measurement – yearly evaluation, qualitative and quantitative targets and internal
views on the impact of the information provided to help with planning and
development.
www.britishscienceassociation.org/crest

4. Alumni
 ~300 members
 Newsletter every 6 months,
 What is in it for them
 Updates on their peers (prize winners)
 Case studies of past alumni (inspire)
 Notification of opportunities (easy access, new experiences)
 What we get out of it
 Closer links with our CREST students post project work
 Promote our projects to a wider audience
 See where they go to after participating in our scheme
www.britishscienceassociation.org/crest

5. Youth Panel
 20 – 25 members each year (now at start of year 3)
 Good range of ages, gender bias towards girls
 Twice yearly meetings, at either The Big Bang Fair or British Science Festival – most
productive output point
 Facebook Group for chatting in between
 What they get - Communication, Teamwork,
Problem Solving, Improving own learning etc
 What we get – Feedback into our scheme
make sure we are relevant, engaging
“It has boosted my confidence and shown me I have more skills than what I
thought, if I stepped out of my comfort zone.”
CREST Awardee, 2011
www.britishscienceassociation.org/crest

6. Workshop Discussion
Ellie Chambers, British Science Association CREST Youth Panel, Planet Under Pressure, Alumni
Natasha Comber, OPM Planet Under Pressure, Evaluation
Holly Margerison, The Science Council Future Morph, Focus groups
Colette Murphy, Queen’s University Belfast Evaluation, Research into young
peoples views
Jess Wynn, CREST Youth Advisor CREST Youth Panel, Planet Under Pressure

7. Thank You
Ellie Chambers, CREST Youth Panel ellie.chambers@britishscienceassociation.org
Natasha Comber, OPM ncomber@opm.co.uk
Holly Margerison, The Science Council h.margerison@sciencecouncil.org
Colette Murphy, Queen’s University Belfast c.a.murphy@qub.ac.uk
Jess Wynn, CREST Youth Panel jcw521@york.ac.uk