The second bi-annual meeting of the CREST youth panel took place on October 24 2015 at the O₂ Think Big Hub, London, and was attended by 16 CREST award holders aged 14-19.  Panel members participated in sessions with Debating Matters, Think Big and the Wellcome Trust.

The British Science Association (BSA) believes that it is important to involve young people in decision making and give them a voice on the issues important to them.

Our CREST Youth Panel is a group of CREST Award holders aged 13-19 who meet twice a year at large science events across the UK to input into the CREST scheme's projects and those of our partners.

During Debating Matters’ session, the panel discussed issues in STEM that would make for an engaging future debates, proposing nearly 20 different topics including; automation of jobs, bio-engineered babies, care for the elderly and the sugar tax.

The panel discussed Think Big’s community project grants and the barriers they’ve faced in their STEM careers, and proposed 3 potential community projects.

The meeting concluded with a webinar discussing the Wellcome Trust’s newly launched ‘The Crunch’ food and drink initiative. The Youth Panel focussed on the use of drama scripts in their Primary program, with the discussion covering a wide range of topics, including the role of drama in education, connecting education to community programs and the complexity of food provenance and sustainability.

Adrian Fenton, Head of Education, said “The recent Youth Panel meeting really showed that young people have valuable passionate opinions about science, with a rich lively range of topics discussed.

“The BSA strongly believes that it’s important to ensure young people are given opportunities to have their say about science, and that their opinions are listened to, in order to shape the future of science.”

We would like to thank the Youth Panel for attending and contributing to lively discussion and debate! 

Find out more about our CREST Youth Panel or our CREST Awards scheme.