12^th September 2018 – The British Science Association (BSA) and URENCO today  announce that CREST Awards are now available to schools and educators in the Netherlands, as part of a pilot project for the awards programme’s international expansion.

In partnership with URENCO, the BSA has translated versions of their highly popular Discovery Day resource, Enrich my classroom. Over the past six months, the BSA and URENCO worked closely with Dutch teachers and pupils; running pilots and training sessions to gain feedback on how best to adapt the resource for Dutch children.

The aim of the resource, renamed Classroom2030, is for students to explore a range of different science, engineering and technology topics through group work, interactive activities and challenges.

CREST is a nationally recognised scheme for student-led project work in the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths). CREST has been shown to have a positive impact on students’ science scores and likelihood of them continuing in science education.

Over 30,000 students a year complete CREST

Each year in the UK, over 30,000 students achieve CREST Awards. As part of its 2018-2020 strategy, the BSA is exploring opportunities to expand CREST internationally. URENCO has partnered with the BSA to support CREST – both across the UK and via tailored outreach to schools around its facility in Chester – for the last four years. This support includes CREST expansion in the Netherlands and discussions are taking place in regards to further international opportunities.  

Katherine Mathieson, Chief Executive of the British Science Association, said: “For the last three decades, CREST has given hundreds of thousands of students the opportunity to think and behave like scientists and engineers. Leading their own projects and investigations increases young people’s science identity and boosts key skills such as teamwork and communication.

“The BSA is in the early stages of creating an international expansion plan for CREST, and so the opportunity to pilot this approach in the Netherlands in partnership with URENCO has been really valuable. We hope that Dutch educators and students enjoy participating in URENCO’s CREST Discovery Day as much as their UK counterparts do.”

Jayne Hallett, Director of Corporate Communications, PR and Sustainability at URENCO said: ‘‘We are delighted that the BSA has chosen the Netherlands as its first destination for international expansion of the CREST Awards programme.

‘‘URENCO has been delivering science workshops and STEM activities in the Netherlands for many years, close to our facility in Almelo. We believe the CREST Awards are a perfect expansion of our current programme of education activities in the area, helping us to reach a much wider audience.

‘‘Feedback on our Discovery Day resource has been very positive, both from our network of teachers in the UK and the Netherlands. We will continue to support the BSA in promoting CREST to a new international audience.’’

The Discovery Day resource is available in both Dutch and English

The Dutch version of URENCO’s CREST Discovery Day resource is available here: http://discoverylibrary.crestawards.org/classroom2030-dutch/62050678

The UK version is available on the CREST resource library here: http://discoverylibrary.crestawards.org/enrich-my-classroom/61694840