CREST Gold Award made possible with parental donations
Charter Sixth Form is rapidly building a fantastic reputation for nurturing the next generation of scientists, and this year’s cohort is proving just how bright that future looks.
Thanks to the generosity of parents who make regular monthly donations to support opportunities for our students, a group of Sixth Formers have embarked on the prestigious CREST Gold Award. This nationally recognised programme challenges students over the age of 16 to design and carry out a substantial piece of practical research. Each participant commits at least 70 hours to their chosen STEM investigation, before their work is reviewed by an external expert to ensure it meets the award’s rigorous standards.
Universities and employers hold the CREST Gold Award in high regard, making it an impressive milestone for any young scientist — and an inspiring experience for those taking part.
Year 13 student Evie is one of the researchers involved, and she shares an overview of her team's project below:
"For our CREST Gold Award, we are exploring how natural and artificial probiotics affect both healthy and unhealthy gut bacteria. We are growing the bacteria in different bacterial broths and modelling disease conditions like IBS, obesity and diabetes to see how they behave when interacting with the probiotics.
To gather results, were are measuring OD600 (how cloudy the sample is, which shows how much bacteria have grown), pH, bacteria colony counts and any visual differences in the cultures. The aim is to find out which probiotics actually support gut health and which ones don’t make much of a difference. It’s been such an exciting project so far and we’ve just done our first trial which produced some exciting results!"
We look forward to sharing updates as the team’s research develops. Opportunities like this are only possible because of the continued support of families who contribute to our Fund the Future initiative, and we are incredibly grateful for their commitment to enriching our students’ education.
If you would like to begin a regular monthly donation, please use the link below:
