Projects are not always something that students dread, in the summer it may be a different story, summer usually the time for most students to finally be free but some classes require a project before the next school year. I can agree with that since it helps retain information from the previous school year. When I though of if those projects should be teacher-designed or student-designed I thought of all the possibilities. When thinking in terms of high school, I believe that summer projects should be student designed to build skills in project management, to be more independent, and to learn more about subjects on their own.

Scout organizations often have awards or ranks that require members to go through their own projects from start to finish. Eagle scouts in Scouts of America, previously known as Boy Scouts of America but still abbreviated to BSA, emphasizes the use of project management in doing their projects. Some scouts do most of their projects in the summer or during breaks because they have time. Scouts have guidelines to follow about the process and the use of the project but what the project is left to his or her interpretation. In Girl Scouts you can not duplicate projects which gives more variety in projects made. Some of these projects are not always physical like building greenhouses or building bridges but can be raising awareness. Taking these projects on requires a lot of planning either to contact governments or specific departments to build things in town or contacting the school to do a seminar at the school. They also need to plan to see how much they are spending, who they need to bring to volunteer to help them, and making advertisements to help bring awareness to their project. All of those things strengthen the skill of project management.

Most highly known award like Eagle scout for Scouts of America or the lesser known Gold Award for Girl Scouts require scouts to work from start to finish on their own. Of course, there is application to submit to their respective council to approve their project and there is guidelines to what the project may be but it's left to his or her's interpretation to make a project themselves. Some may argue that summer projects should be teacher-designed which I interpret as the teacher creates every portion of it; not just the guidelines, but what the students should do for the project like building a model, writing an essay, making a video, or making a collage. They man believe that students many not have the imagination or go so off topic that it is no longer about the subject. However, I have seen amazing things done without much input from a teacher or a leader for a project. A lot of kids can come up with awe-inspiring projects without strict guidelines and build their project at their own pace. They have to have their own initiative to research, plan, and execute their project. They have to ask permission to build on property on their own, they have to ask to do their drive their school on their own. There is no one else to help them and it helps build the skill that is needed for independence after high school.

In school some classes do end-of-year projects that are due, and presented, before the end of the school year and student pick a subject in their unit to research more on; what I did was researched on Norse mythology in my history class, my freshman year. We needed to create a poster and another visual representation of what we researched. In this case I did a doll repaint to make her look like of the Norse goddesses, I researched about the different gods and goddesses in Norse mythology. I learned about something I was interested in which gave me more of an understanding to the history tied to it. The more I learned about it the more I remembered which shows that projects that are student lead help them learn more about the subjects they learned that year and help retain the information for later years.

Student-designed projects help engineer a more independent generation. It will help them with skills they need to bring to their adult lives. They learn how to manage their time and the materials they work with. The learn the ways to be independent and take initiative to get things done. It will benefit their ability to retain information for subjects they study more into. This all shows that student designed projects in the summer will befit them more than teacher-designed projects because of how many skills it works on. For this to benefit all students, I for any summer assignment made to be student lead so it would help enforce a better school year.