My DD11 homeschools and I want her to do a larger science project. She is very good at science but this being her first year homeschooling, we are just getting into the chemistry and physics sciences that she likes. Her school seemed to spend a lot more time on animals and trees etc. I want her to do a science project that she comes up with but I don't know how to guide her into exploring topics in a way that will lead her to choose a project that she can actually do. Does anyone have a recommended resource that is not simply just telling a kid exactly an experiment to do. Thanks

I don't have a specific resource, but science begins with a question. If she accumulates questions, then she can screen them to decide the best way to answer them. "I wonder...", "What if..." and "What would happen..." are the sorts of questions that can lead to experiments. From there it's brainstorming the shape of experiments needed, then picking the right scale experiment matched with the most passion.

My DD loves looking at science experiments on you tube. Even though you want your DD to come up with some ideas of her own, we found looking at lots of experiments from other people helped spur ideas. It also showed her what was possible and how to tackle an experiment.

Once your daughter starts to get some ideas about the types of questions she wants to ask, as Zen Scanner suggests, she can jot ideas in a journal and do a little research on them.

I think it's a lot easier to look at what others have done and come up with new questions that just start cold with a brand new idea. Once she learns how the process of science questioning works then the novel will follow.

I loved watching some story about a kid wondering if solar panels were arranged more like leaves on a tree they would gather more sun...a mix of nature and technology. I wonder how kids come up with this stuff. He said he came up with it on a hike. This isn't the original story I saw on this kid but you get the idea of his project.

http://whatsnext.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/18/meet-a-13-year-old-solar-panel-developer/

my ds 11 keeps trying to improve his Anaerobic Digestion projects. He has done a few other projects but he keeps coming back to this. Its a mess but I like that he keep trying to improve on his building observations.

Google "science fair projects." There are a number of great sites that group project ideas by grade level (for you, that's skill and interest level) and area of interest. These are great because, unlike science demos, they are based on a question and a hypothesis. They'll also list the difficulty of the experimental process and the equipment needed.

You can follow a listed experiment or use it as a jumping off point for crafting your own.

Great ideas here! Just a quick added thought to expand, particularly on ZenScanner. Since you are teaching chem and physics at home, I imagine there will be lots of "why" and "how does" questions coming up throughout lessons. It might help to have a specific spot where you consistently capture them, and then after a while you can look for themes that might drive some hypotheses. Then you have something more specific to google for particular experiments.

For a bit of a different approach to finding inspiration, it might be fun to look at some of the crowd-funding science projects, (like scistarter.com/finder) and games (Google something like "crowd source science games" and you'll start with a huge list on Wikipedia, or there's a couple of cool ones described at scienceadvice.ca/en/feature/past-features.aspx?id=100&utm_source=Council+E-News+Winter+2014+English&utm_campaign=English+E-News+-+winter+2014&utm_medium=email).

Curiosity also led me to mooch around Coursera one day (www.coursera.org), where I immediately found a 6 lecture mini physics course on origins of the universe that I think DS10 would love. A little over his head, but seemed to be structured in a way that you can fully wallow in the ideas while taking the math as far as you are able. Could be a fun way to play with some advanced science in an area of particular interest, with no commitment or fuss about the level of instruction being too high.

Love to hear later what kinds of ideas end up capturing her imagination! Times like this I wish we were homeschooling too, and could really dive into these kins of things.

Kitchen chemistry. Look for editions of "Science Experiments You Can Eat" and the like.

Hey everyone, I got really busy and haven't been able to check the replies but thanks for all the great ideas. She is doing about 2 experiments per week in her science curriculum but she has only done a few of the Physics and Chemistry type of Science that she really likes. I will block off some time for her to explore. I like the kitchen idea because she likes to cook.