When does school end? It doesn't because of teachers who give students hard assignments to do over summer break. Summer projects are a fun way to engage students in learning over their 2 month break. However, it should be student-designed to let students gain leadership skills, and let them express their creativity.

A student accomplishing work they thought of on their own will experience much needed leadership skills. One of the many needed traits in life is leadership and is gained from setting a goal and reaching it. Leadership is an important trait because it shows your character and is necessary in a workplace. An example of a student-designed project is the Science Fair. The Science Fair allows students to choose a project of their own and complete it for a grade. The Science Fair is a perfect example of successful student led projects which also help gain leadership. Another example of a student-designed project is the MYP assignment. The MYP assignment is assigned to 10th graders, in Virginia, and are supposed to make a project from scratch. Their project is allowed to be anything they want and in any format which helps the students gain leadership skills when they finish. Important traits like leadership are gained from student-designed projects

A students ability to have a good imagination is a quality skill. With student-designed projects, they would be able to express them self and choose what is their best interests. A student that loves cars will try more on a project they designed about cars then a teacher telling them to design a project about Anatomy. Also, if a student knows a lot about a specific topic then it would be easier to write about it compared to a topic they have almost no knowledge of. For example, if I know almost everything that has to do with Poker then I would rather write about that instead of computers which I know nothing about. During the summer, many students will be on vacation with their families. The summer is the one time students get a long relaxing break and are free from work. Summer projects assigned by teachers can be stressful and confusing at times which is why it should be a student-designed project. Students designing their own project would allow them to work on it at their own time and do it at a comfortable pace. Creativity is an important skill which students should be allowed to express.

Teachers-designed projects would allow students to have a baseline of where to start from. One positive of teacher-designed projects would be they are professionally designed (by the Teacher). However, many teachers assign projects without thinking of the difficulty or issues that students could face. What if a student doesn't know anything about the topic? Well the teachers expects them to learn it themselves which is another reason giving students the ability to choose for them self is a good idea. A project designed by the teacher can take longer than they expect if students aren't fully educated about the topic. Consequently, this leads to students wasting more of their summer from trying to learn about then complete the teachers project.

In conclusion, student-designed projects are more beneficial than teacher designed projects. They both have pros however the positives of student-designed projects outweigh the teachers. Projects designed by students allow them to gain leadership skills, and let them explore their curiosity or creativity.