After every summer break, students come back to school and seem to have forgotten everything they learned last year. Some schools make students complete summer projects during their time off to prevent the loss of learning and helping the students continue to expand on their knowledge. The problem? Schools don't know if the projects should be student-designed or teacher-designed. There are many good and bad reasons for both sides, but one side stands out more than the other. Summer projects should be student-designed instead of teacher-designed because they can show teachers how creative a student is and give the teachers a rough idea of what the student already knows based on prior knowledge or what the student is like.

If the projects are student designed, it can show how creative a student is because there are no guidelines on what the final product should be. This gives the student an endless amount of ideas that they can choose from, leading to no extent for when they should stop. Creativity is a big part of being a student, if a student isn't creative, then they are more likely to have trouble coming up with ideas to create, share, and develop. If the project is student-designed, it will be a great way to help expand their creativity to new limits so they can be ready for the new school year.

Another reason why the projects should be student designed is because it can provide the teacher with what the student already knows within that topic or what the student is like. If the project is the students choice but on a specific subject, it can show teachers what they already know, thus helping the teacher by not reteaching that specific content. It can also help teachers by understanding what the students strong points are within that subject which can let the teacher know what the student doesn't need practice on. If the project is still of students choice, but on any topic that they can come up with, it can give teachers an idea of their interests before coming to school. These projects are also a first impression on their new teachers, so the teachers would know the type of student they are just by the content of the project, if they turned it in on time, or if it is directly copied from the internet.

Some people may say that the project needs to be teacher-designed for the students success because there would be stricter guidelines, leading to less confusion, but that is not entirely true. Some students tend to not try their hardest when it comes to projects with strict guidelines because they don't have the option to express their creativity, so they do minimal work. Of course, guidelines would be helpful and necessary for the students success, but guidelines with strict rules on the content and design of the project will damper down the students potential creativity. Also, most of the projects would look and sound the same because the teacher specifically told the students what content was needed and what the design of the project should look like.

Reasons like student creativity and the potential for teachers new knowledge on the student themselves and their prior learning are reasons why summer projects should be student-designed. Teacher-designed projects will only harm the students with strict guidelines, leading to the students not being able to express their creativity to their fullest potential.