Imagine that you just finished your painfully difficult year of school and that you are ready for summer break to reward yourself for all the hard work you did in order to pass all of your classes. Most students use this wonderful time wisely to either relax, or prepare for the next year. If you were given a summer project to work on over the summer you would not want it to be so stressful to the point that it ruins your summer, but you would want it to be hard enough to keep you learning at a consistent rate and more importantly, motivated as summer break quickly dwindles away. Some may think the solution to this problem is to make the project teacher-designed because it would keep all the students doing the same project. But if the project was student-designed, students would have a better work ethic towards the project, there would be better results, and students will be more excited to work on the project.

To begin with, if the summer project was student-designed, the students will have a better work ethic towards the project. For example, science fair is a project where nearly everyone has a very memorable and enjoyable time participating. One of the main reasons students enjoy science fair so greatly is because the project you choose is completely unique to you! This makes the students have a strong work ethic towards the project because it is something that they are interested in. If the project is chosen by someone other than their self, you may get a topic that is not interesting to you. this can make your work ethic and overall enjoyment of the project go down dramatically. The more work ethic you have while doing a project, the more relaxed, content, and willing to learn the students will be.

In addition, better results will be accomplished if the summer project is student-designed. Since the project will be individually chosen by each student, this will make every student interested in the project that they are doing. This will motivate the student to work harder and learn more over the summer without having as much stress while doing the project. Just like every project, minor requirements will be required by each teacher. These requirements will be more easily required if each student is interested in completing the project that they are doing. This can bring the overall grade of each individual student and the entire class up since better results will be reached with a student-designed project. This can also bring in the involvement of parents to help since the project would most likely able to be easily explained by another student if it is something they chose. If a project was teacher-designed, some students and parents may not grasp the project completely and may be confused and unmotivated on how to complete the project over the summer. This can widely impact how much the student will learn over the summer.

Finally, students will be much more excited to work on their summer project if the project is student-designed. Younger students and teenagers mostly want to do only what they want to do. When a project is being forced upon a student with specific guidelines, the student will most likely not have as much enjoyment doing the project. It can be compared to being told to wash the dishes from a parent rather than doing the dishes yourself without being told. When you are being told to wash the dishes from a parent, your enjoyment of the chore goes down slightly compared to doing them yourself with no parent telling you what to do. This summer project can be treated the same way, when the teacher says that the project can be up to your entire imagination and student-designed, the student will have a much more enjoyable time doing the project. But if the teacher gives out specific guidelines about how to do the project a certain way, that can bring down the overall motivation and enjoyment the student may have.

In summary, having a student-designed project rather than a teacher-designed project will greatly increase how much each student learns over the summer. This is because the student will be more motivated, happy, and relaxed if it is a project that the student is interested in. If summer projects are included in more schools, hopefully they are student-designed. This can be a good opportunity to make students have something productive to do during their summer break. With a student-designed project more students will have a better work ethic, there will be better results, and students will be more excited to work on the project.