Student-designed Projects Encourage Learning

Summers can be boring for students, especially when homework is assigned. Students have creative minds and a variety of interests which can be specialized to a topic of interest; however, schools tend to assign a generic assignment to all students despite their differences. Summer projects are intended to enable students to continue learning and exploring the world through a lense of their interest. Therefore, allowing students to design their own summer projects allows for their interests to spark, their creativity to grow, and their areas of knowledge to expand.

Firstly, student-designed summer projects will allow for every student to specify the project on his or her interests. Every child is different and shows admiration towards different subjects in school. If teachers design the summer project, the students will lack incentive to explore an area of interest as that has already been done for them. Additionally, teachers will attempt to design the summer project in a way that it applies to all students; however, not all students think alike. For example, most middle schools conduct science fairs that allow kids to explore an area of science that particularly interests them. This allows for children to research heavily into a subject and even enjoy doing so. This not only sparks an interest for science, but it also allows students to show off their abilities and specialize in their talents. This science fair analogy can be applied to summer projects because children will develop their admiration towards an educational topic and will enjoy the learning process. This creates a positive incentive for learning despite it being summer.

Secondly, if students are enabled to design their own summer projects, creativity will occur and develop. When teachers design projects, students are incentified to simply follow instructions and do as they are told. This results in surface level researching and a lack of interest in actually learning and retaining knowledge. This is understandable as most students do not enjoy a generic assignment that does not apply specifically to their interests. However, if students were given the opportunity to design their own project, they could research a subject that sparks their interest and creativity. This will lead to a deeper understanding of the topic and will result in a better quality of summer projects completed over all. For example, refering back to the science fair analogy, most students will become creative and design their own experiments if they are given the opportunity to do so. Most students enjoy being given the freedom and trust to become creative and show off their interests.

Lastly, when students return to school after summer break, they will see a variety of interesting summer projects completed by their classmates. The student-designed projects allow for a large variety of topics to be explored, and will benefit the students intensely. If all students, for example, have the same assignment, they would be less interested in their classmates projects as they would all be generically similar. However, if the students have the opportunity to design and conduct their own research into their favorite topic, then the students can share each others interesting new insights with each other and spread their knowledge. This increases students admiration for learning and will inentify them to study something interesting for their classmates.

In conclusion, allowing students to design their own summer projects allows for their interests to be explored, their creativity to flourish, and their areas of knowledge to expand. Schools tend to fail to recognise that each student is different, and that he or she requires different learning styles in order to be successfull in learning. It is vital that students are given the opportunity to become creative and explore an interest that is dear to them. If this is not prioritized, schools will continue to foster the idea of simply following instructions.