Summer projects from schools for students should be student designed. I'll start off by saying the task you are giving to the students should be designed for them, it will improve the likelihood that students do better on something that is specifically designed for them rather than something that is easy to grade. With the mindset focused towards student success the student's will also more likely complete the projects assigned to them. You wouldn't do very well on say a mountain bike when competing in a BMX tournament, it's not what it was designed for and the same logic applies to the project for the students. They won't succeed in something designed for a teacher nearly as much as if it was designed specifically with them in mind.

Continuing off my first point in the first paragraph a student oriented project will most likely work better for everyone involved even to the teachers benefit when it comes to grading. Whatever project students are assigned should be easy to understand as in the tasks that are to be completed should be challenging and test the student but should not be a hard concept to grasp, keep in mind the students will more than likely have help to complete their projects and may enlist the help of their friends, but there are also students like myself who struggle making friends and don't exactly go to others for help even when it is beneficial to us. Us student's will also be more likely to complete the project, whatever it may be, with more enthusiasm if it has us in mind.

My next point stems from my own experience and I imagine it can only get worse as my work ethic has improved and I can work for far longer than. Student's, mainly in high school like myself get ourselves into the work force around this time in our lives, especially over the summer with seasonal jobs such as being a lifeguard. A fair chunk of our time will be taken up by working and even more so if we have family trips such as going to see relatives in Florida. Dedicating our time to a summer project may not be easy; so making it with the intent of us working on it every day throughout summer break won't be the best idea. The argument can arise however that this 2 and a half month long project should have teachers in mind, since they will be evaluating our performance and will receive many projects to grade when we return to school. It will be time consuming to say the least on their parts, to cover every student's project while grading every other assignment they have to grade when school picks back up again, they will have classwork, quizzes, and tests to grade. To that I respond it should still be student oriented with the fact of the matter lying in if it is hard on the student it will indirectly be hard on the teacher.

Another aspect of the student focus should be a sufficient coverage of all topics that will keep our brains working and continuing our growth as students in an academic sense. The contents of our task should include English, Math, Science, and History with perhaps an optional elective if the student so chooses to take on the extra work such as perhaps a German section for foreign language. Or perhaps you can include a research portion for students you know have specific trips they will be taking. Say I for example, have a yearly trip down to my aunt in South Carolina, she lives near plenty of historical sites and marshes. You can either assign me to research certain animals such as native bull frogs or plants such as the Azalea trees for which a town called Generic_City is known for, it even has it's flower town festival celebrating the beauty of the flowers that are produced. It would be engaging for me to pursue the research report while learning about the areas culture and native species of plants and animals in the process. Anyone would be more likely to complete the report and do it well if it doesn't even feel like work.

To conclude my paper I will quickly revisit my points as to why I believe my stance on the matter is the correct way to go about this issue I have been presented with. First and foremost whatever is assigned should be student focused to ensure their success. The topics should cover all the basics of academics such as Science, English, Math, and History unless the student can perform another task that the teacher and student both agree to such as research report of a specific area that they may travel to on a family trip. And ensure the summer project can be completed in a reasonable time for the student and that it can be spread out over the entirety of the break so that it does not interfere and take time away from summer jobs because it is such a lengthy project.