Every year teachers across the United States of America assign summer projects to their students. These summer projects push students to continue learning new information over the summer.

Although some people may believe that a teacher should design these projects because a teacher will create a meaningful project that will benefit the students, the students should design their own project because they will pick a topic that interests them, they will be motivated to complete the project, and they will use their creativity and imagination to design something wonderful and exciting.

First of all, students who design their own summer project, will most likely design something that interests and excites them. For example, a student named Generic_Name was interested in earth science and decided to create a summer project where he found and labeled different types of rocks.

This project interested Generic_Name and pushed him to explore and learn about what he loves.

If a teacher had assigned a project to Generic_Name where he wrote a paper about inflation in the U.S. this project most likely would not have interested or excited Generic_Name. Another time, a different student named Generic_Name had the opportunity to design his own summer project, he chose to examine and record the life cycle of frogs and monitor their growth.

Generic_Name was immensely interested in biology and was thrilled to have the opportunity to create a project were he was interested and expanding his knowledge about the subject of biology. Students creating their own summer projects are more likely to choose a project that interests and excites them than if a teacher assigned a project.

Furthermore, another advantage to a student creating their own project is that the student will be motivated to complete the project. Students all over the country struggle to complete school work because they lack motivation.

If a student created his or her own project, they could create something fun that he or she would be motivated to put effort into and complete. A student could be assigned a project by a teacher about the Pythagorean theorem, but he would be so unmotivated to complete the project or learn any new information from the project. This defeats the whole purpose of a summer project, which is for students to continue to learn and expand their knowledge over summer break. If this same student was given the option to create his own project, he could design a project where he builds a miniature and rocket and launches it.

This student would be motivated to complete the exciting project that he designed, but more importantly the student would be learning new information while he completed the project.

Another example is when a student named Generic_Name decided to do a summer project where he studied different types of trees. Generic_Name loved being outside, so this project motivated him to look for different types of trees in nature and complete the project.

Generic_Name learned an enormous amount of information about trees while he was completing his project, but he also had an immense amount of fun.

When a student determines their own summer project they are given the option to pick something fun that motivates them to complete the project while learning new information.

Last of all, letting a student design their own project will activate the students creativity. In today's age students are not given enough opportunities to use their imagination and creativity. This is why students should be allowed to create their own project. The process of designing the project allows the students to use their creativity. For example if a student was given a boring project to complete over the summer by a teacher they would not be using their imagination or their creativity. This is not the way a summer project should be, a summer project should trigger the students imagination and excite them with possibilities. For example a young student in sixth grade created a project where she wrote a paper about what she wants to be when she becomes an adult.

This sixth grader used her imagination to write about herself in the future.

A teacher would not necessarily assign a project that allowed students to use their imagination. Creativity and imagination are both extremely important, this is why students should be the ones to design their projects to complete over summer break.

In conclusion, designing summer projects should be left up to the students, because the students will be more motivated to complete the project, interested by their topic, and forced to use their creativity. In the near future more and more teachers across the United States will let their students design their own summer projects.

All teachers should let their students be motivated, creative, and interested in what they are learning, this is why students should create their own summer projects.