The usage of summer projects is an undermined technique that schools implement to educate their students. It incorporates an application process to subjects and topics learned in class, to real-world settings. For many students, this process of application is enough to instill certain topics into one's memory. Thus, to ensure that students receive a meaningful and valuable summer project, teachers should have the ability to design and construct these assignments. The reason for this is that teachers effectively utilize summer projects to introduce new topics, have a better understanding of the curriculum and subject, and can emphasize certain topics that are vital for students to understand.

Many students might find the first quarter of a new school year a bit cumbersome; however, with the aid of a teacher-designed summer project, students can establish a better academic foundation before entering the school year. This process of learning a topic before it is discussed or taught in school has may psychological and academic benefits. In the book

Talent , the author describes the educational process as a learning curve; for our purposes, only the first and second stages in this process are critical to understanding the effects of teacher-designed projects. The first stage of this curve is the data gathering process, where a person begins to input and understand the information into one's conscious thinking: this is typically the longest and most difficult phase in the learning curve. The second stage of this curve is the application process, where people now have the ability to translate their newly acquired knowledge to a real scenario. A majority of students might not know this, but the first step in this learning curve is what students experience in a classroom, which is why students might not fully grasp a topic the first time it is taught. Connecting back to the prompt, the teacher-designed projects act as a catalyst to this learning process, where students aren't starting at the bottom of the data gathering curve, rather, they have already progressed through the first stage of learning. With a general foundation, students have a better ability to digest the information given during class. Moreover, this state of being a faster learner has many psychological benefits; the most important one being a confidence and morale boost. Essentially, feeling that you have this supernatural ability to easily absorb information boosts your confidence in the class, which, in return, increases your productivity in that class. A teacher-constructed summer project ensures that students can begin this learning strategy by introducing new topics that will be discussed during the following year.

An important notion that should be addressed is that most students do not have a developed understanding of a subject's curriculum. However, teachers are trained and knowledgeable about the course curriculum, and have the ability to tailor the summer projects to the academic standards the students are expected to uphold. The issue with having a student-designed summer project is that the students might not have the ability to distinguish between topics that are less or more important. On the contrary, teachers posses the ability to guide their students to topics that are beneficial for them to understand. In other words, by allowing teachers to design the summer projects, students gain a better understanding to where the teacher is directing them throughout the new academic year.

Despite the evidence listed, some students are still not satisfied with having a teacher-designed project during the summer. The major claims they use to corroborate their defense is that the projects designed by teachers are not interesting enough or they do not necessarily appeal to the students' interest. First, it should be noted that these are very sensible and valid reasons to why someone might not want a teacher-designed summer project. In fact, when people to do not enjoy a certain task, they loose motivation to complete it. However, it should also be noted that teachers consider this claim when designing their projects. Personally, I have always received flexible summer assignments from my teachers, where they have allowed students to add information and topics they find interesting to the overarching theme of the project. Teacher-designed summer projects have the ability to make space for topics that students might find interesting, while also directing them towards important topics and ideas that will be addressed in the following year.

Like any logical argument, the good and harm of both teacher-designed and student-designed projects should be juxtaposed. For teacher-designed projects, there benefits include a smooth transition into new topics, outlining important topics and ideas, and a tailored focus to the curriculum. The only major disadvantage to teacher-designed summer projects are that it might not be interesting for the student, which is not always the case. On the contrary, student-designed projects have the benefit of being interesting to the desires of the students themselves. However, student-designed summer projects have many disadvantages including a less reliable topic focus and a meandering project objective. Furthermore, it is evident that teacher-designed summer projects are more beneficial to the students than student-designed summer projects are.