If a student is gonna do something that's gonna take away from their free time then it should be the students that design it. Most students don't do homework or other work that teachers give them so I doubt they'll do something in the summer when it's their break. If they design it then it would make them more motivated to do that assignment. Lets face it, most teachers don't really give out the most exciting projects so a lot of students would not complete it let alone even touch it. If students are given the freedom of designing it then they could be really creative with it and get them to do it.

Students are already very unmotivated with school work so if they could design a project based on their interest then they are bound to do it. Students tend to mess around and not take their work seriously because of the fact that they are unmotivated to do it especially if it's in the summer. Giving them a choice of what they want to do will give them motivation and a sense to at least try it. It wouldn't feel as mundane as what they would usually get from teachers. Lets say for example they are given a project on the Election of 1912 and they need to do a presentation. A lot of students would give the bare minimum or rather wouldn't do it at all and forget about it. Now imagine doing that in the summer where they could be on vacation and now the possibility of them doing it is lowered. They don't find much reasons to do it besides the fact that it's for a grade.

Having the freedom to work on something comfortable with your abilities is drastically going to change how the project performs. Projects would be more appealing to look at and would creative and different. Instead of every project having the same format, students can be original and turn something mundane into an enjoyment. It wouldn't feel as forced and give them an opportunity to show off their originality. Its like if a artist wanted to make an album but they didn't have a record label. They would be limited on money and to get features and instrumentals to make music. They wouldn't have much of a freedom on what they wanted thus the album wouldn't sound as good as they wanted it to. It's the same for this as in they wouldn't get much of a choice and not performing as well as they wanted to.

Some may say that the lack of format or instructions will cause worse performances with the project. Although I can see that point in which giving them instructions will be easier to grade and to show an understanding, it will also cause a lack of involvement and need to do it. Sometimes, instructions are not gonna be crystal clear and some students would fail to understand and do things wrong. Given the same format will cause an increase in cheating and copying other students since formatting should be the same for everyone. Doing work in which should be their free time isn't really gonna be ideal when they aren't given much freedom or creativity to work with.

Summer projects should be student-designed because it'll allow freedom and motivation to do it. Motivation is key in how the project will perform and letting them have that freedom on how they want to do it goes hand and hand. Creativity is vital on how the project will perform and how well of a grade it will get. Budget in movies and videos or even music can change the output of how it sounds or performs. Given a small budget could make the performance or sound worse and disappoint people and themselves. Creativity is key in having a good project and if teachers would design it then it wouldn't be as good as if students were to design it.