During the school year, a student completes set projects and curriculum in order to pass the classes which they are enrolled in. Over the summer, however, some schools require that projects should be assigned to students so that they continue to learn. I think that these projects should be student-designed because they will allow students to explore new fields, inspire creativity, and take away stress from students.

Student designed projects will allows students to explore new fields that they may be interested in. If students are able to design their own summer projects, then they are able to choose a topic that is interesting to them for this project. This will allow the student to explore, research, and experiment within new fields. This exploration and research of new fields is very beneficial because it helps students find a career path based on what topics they are interested in.

Having student-designed summer projects will inspire creativity. If a student is able to create their own project without need of a rubric or teacher to guide them, then this project is truly coming from the student. This will allow students to really show themselves when completing these projects. If students are just given a teacher-designed project, they are just following a rubric and completing what the teacher wants them to do. This work can be numb and boring for the students who could be using all their creativity on their own self-designed project.

Student-designed projects will take away a lot of the stress that some students have during normal teacher-designed projects. Students will be less focused on doing everything right since the project is designed by them. These students will instead be able to focus on learning the material instead of stressing over getting a good grade. This will improve both the students mental health and the value in learning the student is actually receiving from a project.

Schools should allow these summer projects to be student-designed. Although some may argue that teacher-designed projects are better because it guarantees that a student will learn a specific curriculum, student-designed summer projects have so many more benefits. I believe that these projects should be student-designed because they will allow students to explore new fields, inspire creativity, and take away stress from students