Summer projects are done by many students and are used by schools to assure learning over the break. Summer projects are usually assigned by teachers or by the school so they know what and how the student is doing academically over the summer. Most of the time, students find the summer projects annoying and a nuissance to their break and, thus, do the project later in the summer rather than doing gadually over summer. To fix this, students should be able to design what they are doing so that it assures the student wants to do the project, the student gets the opportunity to be more creative, and the student get to control their education and independence.

Having the student design the project they are doing assure that the student wants to complete the project. A student designed project would allow the student to accomplish what they want. For example, if a teacher gave a student a summer project to do over the summer and the student does not like the project, the student would not be inclined to do the project. However, if the student had designed the project, the student would be more inclined to do it since the student would know what exactly they can and cannot do. The student would also be more excited to do the project and thus complete it. Since the student would want to complete project, they would probably retain the information better.

A student designed project would allow the student to be more creative with their learning process and with the finished product in general. Since letting the students design the project means for freedom, the student could become more creative with what they accomplish. For example, if the student designed a book project, they could make the project a video project or a visual arts project or something that would be entertaining rather than a project like a book summary or a relationship between two things. With more creativity, students get to explore more with the topic and relate the topic to something they personally like.

Most importantly, the student would get control over their education. With a teacher designed project, the students would not get that much control over what they learn and would feel dependent on the teacher and not feel ready for the outside world. With a student designed project, the students get to choose what is important to their education and what they need to remember over the summer. The students would also feel a sense of independece from the mostly teacher-based education they normally get. This control and independence would also let the student become prouder of their accomplishment and the finished product.

With the opportunity to be more creative, in control, and independent, student designed projects over the summer would be a great idea for continued learning outside of the classroom. With that opportunity, students would feel a sense of freedom and a sense control over what they are doing. Student designed projects would allow an opportunity for self based learning outside of the classroom.