The Benefits of Student-Designed Summer Projects

School requires studying, tests, practicing, and now doing what is called a summer project. This means doing something over summer break that relates to some sort of school subject. Students should be able to design their own summer projects because it is their time off, they would have the luxury of choosing their own topic, and they would learn the importance of constructing and designing their own project. Teachers could argue that there are more learning benefits for the students if it is teacher-designed, but at the end of the day, summer is supposed to be a time off from instructional learning.

Summer break is supposed to be a time for students to relax and reflect on their previous year of school. Normally people have plans over summer, maybe to travel, visit family, get a job, etc. If a teacher assigns a project over summer, that could interfere with plans already made; whereas if a student designs their own project, they can schedule it to fit their needs. With all of the hard classes kids take during the school year, summer break helps them unwind and prepare for the next year. A student-designed project could give kids the benefit to make their own rules and set their own limits to what they can handle.

A student-designed summer project would mean that the student could pick whatever topic they choose, and carry it out however they choose. Having set guidelines from a teacher can box in one's imagination. Summer is the time for people to explore and do things that interest them, if a teacher gives out a topic for each student, it might not be what the students are drawn to and their potential for a great project could slip away. It is so much easier and more fun to do a project that you are passioniate about, instead of one that you are only doing for a grade.

Projects can require a lot of planning, focus, and research. Student-designed summer projects will teach kids the importance of constructing their own projects and meeting requirements on their own. This would give students the chance to use their own voice on their project, and it would prepare them for the real world. Teachers often give out rubrics, resources, guidelines, etc. to students, but work is not always just going to be written out step-by-step for them. Without the babying of a teacher, students would learn to be confident in their own work and not second-guess themselves.

One might argue that teacher-designed summer projects are better for students learning and skills. Teacher-designed projects would probably be a little more straight forward and tell the students exactly what they are looking for in their projects. They might also benefit students in an area that they struggled in before; the projects could be focused around one specific subject for each student. Teacher-designed projects would probably be much easier for teachers to grade because they would most likely make a rubric and guidelines for the projects. All of these reasons still do not make up for the endless opportunities that kids would have if the summer projects were student-designed.

All in all, student-designed summer projects would benefit kids in more ways than one. Kids need to have time off from school in the summer, they need to have the luxury of choosing their own topic, and they need to be prepared to construct their own work like they would in the real world. If the purpose of projects are to learn and understand something better, why not let kids grow as people while learning school-related material?