Every year students look forward to going on summer break and getting away from school. This three month break often involves forgetting important skills and not learning new information. Some schools require students to complete summer projects to solve these problems. These projects should be teacher-designed to ensure that the project is relevant, has a difficulty on grade level with that of the student, and allows for easy collaboration and communication.

While being able to pick their own topic for a summer project may be more fun for students, a teacher-designed project would insure that the information being learned connects to what they need to know for school. A random project in the middle of break is a waste of time if the teacher cannot connect it to what the students will be learning in class. For example, a physics teacher may want to assign a project to introduce momentum or energy, this will allow students to come into class with a general understanding of the subject. Having a project with a specific learning goal will make students feel as if they are making the most of their time and are learning something that will be useful in the future.

When given the task of creating their own projects, students will often design the easiest project they can get away with. Teachers can ensure appropriate difficulty in the projects by designing them themselves. Projects can be adjusted so they are suitable for different grades and class types; the more difficult the class is, the more difficult the project will be. Students wouldn't be able to complete the easiest project they can or overestimate themselves and design a project too hard.

During the summer it is important for students to be able to contact their teachers and ask for help. If a project is student-designed, a teacher may have difficulty assisting a student if they become confused and need help. A teacher-designed project would make asking for and receiving help a lot easier. If the teacher-designed project were to be uniformly distributed to all students taking similar class, the students would be able to collaborate and ask each other for help as well. Completing the assignment in groups would be more fun for the students and easier to grade for the teachers.

Summer projects need to be teacher-designed so they are on topic, have a reasonable difficulty, and allow for optimal communicate and collaboration. Summer projects are often dreaded by students, but a teacher-designed project is more beneficial than a student-designed project.