For most, summer is filled with unwinding from the stresses of school, traveling to new places, and learning new skills. This break is given to students to relax and reflect on all of their hard work. Summer allows students to find activities that they are passionate about. Summer assignments should be student-designed because this allows students to determine the extent and length, the topic, and the platform the project will take place on. This break in between moving onto the next level of education is meant for students to distress and enjoy life outside of school. Surely, making the summer projects more student-based allows for scholars to continue to learn, while also allowing students to enjoy time off.

An important part of growing as a person and figuring out what career path to go down in the future is exploring possible interests. This break from the school year allows for students to do this outside of school, as well as time given to relax. If the length of the projects assigned over the summer are chosen by teachers, the students could end up with a big work load which takes away from their opportunities. Many students get jobs over the summer to gain work experience before furthering their education after high school. Not only does this help them build their transcript and resume before moving onto a new chapter in life, but it also allows them to figure out what they like do versus what they do not like to do. Students who are overwhelmed with summer projects are more inclined to not get a job or participate in the things they like to do, which defeats the purpose of the break.

Another positive outcome of student-designed projects is students can have a say in what they want to research. If the students are allowed to pick the topic of their projects that have to do with the associated class, they are more likely to have better work and learn more. Again, this break is given to scholars to allow them to enjoy life outside of school. By giving students no say in the topic they are furthering their learning on, they are less inclined to do their best work or even any work at all. Having students pick the topic of their summer assignments would surely make the projects more enjoyable and easier for the students to complete.

Finally, the last component that students should be able to determine for their summer projects is the platform they use to complete the project. Hands-on students prefer to do projects on a poster board, while more tech-savvy students would prefer to use Google slides or Prezi to present their work. Giving students a say in the way they are able to complete their project makes it a lot more enjoyable for them, essentially making it easier to complete. There are many different types of learners like people who prefer to visualize the topic they are learning about or people who would rather hear more on the topic. More visual learners may have better time comprehending the subject of the project if they can add visuals to the projects by hand. Audible learners may want to listen to videos regarding the topic and film a podcast discussing their work to better process the research they have done.

Student-designed projects allow for better learning and understanding of the topic, while still allowing students to enjoy their time off from school. Although, student should have a say in the subject, length, and platform of their summer projects, teachers should also set boundaries for these projects. It would be pointless for students to study a topic not relating to the class at all. Teachers could provide students with a list of subjects to research that they can pick from. There should also be guidelines that pertain to the length of the project because it is unfair if some students work really hard on the summer projects, yet others slack off for the same grade. However, the students should have some say in the amount of work they chose to do. Students should also be given multiple platforms to choose from, but not completely free range. The risk with giving students a free range of platforms is students could use platforms that teachers are not familiar with. Students should be given the choice of the topic, length, and platform concerning their summer assignments with teacher guidelines. It is important to keep students learning, while also letting them participate in the things they are passionate about.