These kids WILL bite off more than they can chew, so you have to keep an eye on them or they'll wilt. partway through.[/quote]
I just went through this with dd11. She chose "harnessing the gravitational energy of Mars" for her math project. After about a week, she came home from school upset because she wasn't finding any good resources online. We spent an hour looking at physics websites and then I was feeling frustrated too. I told her that neither of us are physicists and could figure out in one more week how to do something that nobody else has discovered. Tears. The next morning I suggested that she calculate the energy with all of the formulae she had discovered online. I said that would be impressive enough and she could leave the harnessing part for when she's in graduate school. I think everyone is happy now but it took some guidance. It makes we wonder what her teacher was thinking when she encouraged her to go for the whole enchilada!
