Some schools require students to complete summer projects to assure they continue learning during their break.

Completing a summer project allows students to refocus more quickly when school starts again and ensures that skills students learned during the previous school year remain sharp.

Additionally, the completion of a summer project provides for a phantasmagoria of success throughout the upcoming school year.

However, most of these summer projects are teacher-designed rather than student-designed.

Summer projects should be student-designed because students learn differently, can explore their passion, and can show off their unique skill set.

Obviously, students have different learning abilities and may learn differently from their peers.

For example, students who are classified as auditory learners would not succeed on a hands-on project to continue their education because they prefer verbal explanations or videos to learn.

Additionally, some students are visual learners; they may require to see another person's work in order to complete their own.

Therefore, assigning these students a hands-on project would not be beneficial to their education.

When different learning styles are taken into consideration, it is evident that each individual student is aware of how they learn; consequently, they should be able to devise a project that fits their unique learning style.

Furthermore, assigning a student a project that does not interest them would make completing the project seemingly unbearable.

Students would choose topics that interest them if given the chance to design their own project.

For example, a student who is particularly interested in automobiles would not wish to complete a project on the effects of cow manure on the pollution of waterways.

They, in turn, would not take this project seriously, which would be detrimental to their grade.

Additionally, giving students the opportunity to design their own project would allow the teacher to see each student's passions.

This would benefit both teacher and student because the teacher would learn about the student's interests on the first day of school rather than through awkward "getting to know you" activities.

Giving students the ability to design their own projects would allow each student to be excited to explore their interests and present their passions to the classroom when school starts again.

Some would say that allowing the students to design their own projects would cause an issue for the teacher to grade it because each student's project would be different.

However, allowing students to design their own project would give them the ability to show off their specific set of skills.

For example, students who are gifted in vocal music would not succeed on a project that involves woodworking, and vice versa.

Students should be given the opportunity to share their gifts with the teacher so that future projects could be set to their strengths rather than their weaknesses.

On the issue of grading these projects, teachers could evaluate the amount of time and effort that appears to be put into each project rather than using a cookie-cutter rubric.

Students would be more successful on a project that showcases their skills than if a teacher designed the project for them.

Grading these projects would simply take a more evaluative angle from the teacher.

When one considers that students have individual learning needs, wish to complete projects based on their passions, and are more successful completing projects that emphasize their skill set, then one can see that students should be able to design their own summer project rather than complete one that is teacher-designed.

Allowing students to design their own summer project would, consequently, prepare and excite them for the upcoming school year where they would be able to present findings that are unique.

This would then build momentum for the remainder of the school year.

Although projects would prove to be dampening to the students' summer break, completing a project that explores their interests would be less gruesome than a teacher-designed project.