Learning is a life-long process. Even as an adult, learning doesn't stop after leaving college. Humans learn new things every day, and learning is what keeps our society moving forward; it's how technology and medicine continue to improve year after year. But a crucial time period in one's life is the young adult years, where new information is constantly being learned, especially in school. Students are in school for most of the year, but for about 3 months during the summer, the farthest thing from students' minds is learning.

This is understandable, as summer break is a time period for relaxation, to celebrate completing a year of school and take a break before preparing for the next one. But when students haven't done a single Algebra problem the whole summer, or even picked up a book, it can become problematic for teachers when students walk in the first day not knowing the basics required for their class.

That's where summer projects come in. They're a good way to keep students from forgetting all of the basics they must know, or to introduce them to a new class before the actual school year starts.

They're good in theory, but the reality is that most kids don't do these projects. They'll recieve the assigment and think to themselves,

"

I have the entire summer to finish this, so I'll just forget about it until it's closer to the new school year"

Then July rolls around. Project sits unfinished. August arrives, and the project hasn't been touched once. Then, a week before school starts, the student remembers they have a project due, so they scamble to finish it, meaning it's sloppy and rushed. This cycle doesn't apply to all students, but the vast majority fall victim to it.

So how can teachers get students to not finish their summer projects last minute? By letting their students design their summer projects, it will incentivize them to take advantage of the time they have over the summer and do a good, thorough job on them.

For the most part, students enjoy having more freedom on a project or assignment. They aren't restricted by the teacher's requirements, and because they're most likely working on something they enjoy, they'll have more fun in the process. This same principle applies to summer projects. If students get more freedom with what they can do, they'll end up actually wanting to work on it on time because they chose something that interests them.

Taking it a step further, self-designing a project is the perfect way for students to work hard on the project. Say a student is taking a history class, and the class requires a summer project of the student's choosing. The student enjoys learning about World War 2, so they research and find a living war veteran. They set up an interview with them and write a report on the veteran's experience and what it was like to talk to someone who lived during that time.

With this example, the student is continuing to learn because they're gaining knowledge about history from a direct source, but also enjoying themselves because they were already interested in World War 2. This balance of learning and having fun while doing so is the perfect recipe for a successful summer assigment, and it could only be achieved through having students self-design their projects. A teacher cannot assign a project that would pique everyone's interests and make it a learning experience, since they don't know what every individual student is interested in.

Student-designed summer projects can even be satisfying for subjects that students aren't terribly interested in if they make it fun for themselves. If a student doesn't really care for math, but loves learning about the enviornment, they could try to find geometric patterns or shapes that naturally occur in nature. This merging of subjects is incredibly beneficial, since not only are students having fun with their project, but they're potentially learning more about two different subjects, in this case, geometry and the enviornment.

What's best about a student-designed project is that they aren't limited to writing, or completing some sort of packet of material as most teachers assign. These packets are tedious and border on being busy work, as most students see them as being there to be completed and turned in for the points. If a student designs their project themselves, they're able to learn the information though real-world application, and present/compile it in the way that makes most sense to them. That could be through writing, making a presenation board, or even through video or song.

Of course, giving students complete freedom isn't realistic either. Students could get their project idea approved, and a teacher could guide them in the right direction if their project is rejected. They could also collaborate with other students and combine their ideas, or do a joint project. There are limitless possibilities that all allow for students to flex their creative muscles, and with some guidelines in place, student-designed summer projects won't be thrown together at the last minute.

In all, although there are pros and cons to both teacher-designed and student-designed projects, student-designed projects allow for more creative freedom, learning possibilites, and projects not being rushed, but instead carefully crafted and researched. They would make for a more thorough and complete learning experience, and possibly help students realize that leaning can be very enjoyable if done in a way that satisfies their individual learning style and their personal interests and hobbies.