The whole school community, particularly our Science Faculty, have been celebrating over the last few weeks as one of our Year 13 pupils, Marianne, has been awarded with a National academic award, the Gold CREST award. This is in recognition for her achievement in her independent research project linking chemistry and archaeology.
This is an extraordinary academic achievement for Marianne. The CREST award programme is a nationally recognised scheme for student-led project work in the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths). Students are required to complete a project that makes an original contribution to a STEM field of study. The highest grade is the Gold, which is designed to truly challenge students. Gold Awards are externally assessed by a trained CREST assessor. They are all experts from industry, academia or the education sector.
At Gold level, pupils are encouraged to collaborate with a CREST mentor, an academic or person from industry with expertise in their project’s theme. CREST Silver and Gold Awards are highly sought after, and further enhance a pupils UCAS personal statement or CV. Marianne focused her area of study in “Investigating past diets in Roman Britain using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements”. To make this a success, she also initiated contact with the archaeology labs at Oxford University. This was truly an independent research project and testament to Marianne’s natural ability in science.
Marianne had this to say about her CREST award entry:
I initially came across the domain of archaeological sciences when reading a newspaper article about new insights on the Black Plague. It really interested me and I decided to read the book “Archaeological Science: An Introduction”. This made me realise just how important sciences are to understanding the past. I contacted one of the authors, Professor Kate Britton of the University of Aberdeen. We discussed research topics and she supported me throughout the CREST project as my mentor. It was incredible to see how chemical analysis of skeletons can give information on past diets.
Our Head of Chemistry, Dr Regardsoe also commented:
Marianne truly embraced the whole idea of the CREST awards programme.
