School projects offer students with the chance to a more engaging and creative way of learning through their own forms of research, application, and presentation of what they are learning about in school. During school, projects are often based off of particular subjects of study in different classes, such as making shapes with parabola equation graphs in Algebra II or a poster of the effects of the Battle of Generic_City in WWII in AP World History. Although projects during the school year offer a new path of more in depth learning for many students, summer projects outside of school can offer new skills, learning, and engagement beyond the classroom and can sharpen students' minds for the next school year ahead of them. Summer projects should not only act as a new form of learning, but should also act as a freeway for students' creativity, passions, and interests to travel through their work. Summer projects should be student-driven and designed in order to keep the student engaged and interested in what they are doing, to allow them the freedom of summer vacation, and to increase the value of what they learned to them and their intellectual development.

During the summer, students have more time to focus on what they enjoy and are engaged in. From traveling to sports, students have way more interest in things they enjoy doing in the summer rather than teacher-designed school activities and projects, things that they have experienced throughout the whole school year prior. Students should have the opportunity to learn about something that they are interested in in order to keep them engaged and do their best work on the summer project. Although basic guidelines should be given by teachers of broad knowledge of instructions to give the student a framework, students should be able to pick a topic and media that will keep them motivated to complete the project to the best of their ability. For example, if a student is interested in the environmental issues facing the Amazon Rainforest, the summer should be an opportunity for them to show their interest in that particular subject while also learning valuable lessons of accountability and new learning for a school grade.

Summer is also a time for students to have freedom from the walls of their school building and to experience new and exciting things. This is another reason why summer projects should be student-designed: students should have the opportunity to learn through ways that they love and are engaged in, allowing them freedom to grow and learn through their own motivations. If summer projects for students were teacher-designed, already handing students a topic, media, and specific guidelines, a student would loose the value of summer freedom and the break from school-designed activities and projects. This could lead the student to become less engaged, less responsible, and less-likely to do their best work, due to being confined by teacher-given provisions. Students already experience this throughout an entire school year and should be able to have freedom in what they focus their summer work on. This will not only enable them to be interested and passionate about what they are doing, but also will allow them to have the freedom that they have all been craving throughout the school during the summer months of vacation.

Finally, students should be able to choose their summer project in order to increase the value of what they learned to themselves and their intellectual development. Often when a student is given a project or activity by a teacher of something that they are not as interested in, students become less likely to actually retain what they are learning and are not able to grow as freely or nearly as much. In comparison, when students are given the opportunity to pick their topic of study and focus along with how they are going to complete the project, students will be able to value what they are learning so much more because of their passion and interest in the subject. This allows for students to grow intellectually during the months away from school while also letting them focus on a topic or media that they love.

Summer projects can be extremely beneficial to students and their learning outside of the classroom while also giving the student a way to express their passions and interests. This is necessary for a student to stay engaged, learn with value, and to do their work to the best of their ability. This not only allows a student to continue to learn during the summer months, but also gives a student the freedom to learn new knowledge of topics that they are interested in and enjoy.