have you ever had to do a summer assignment? Well, in some shcools, they have summer projects instead. The purpose of this is to help students retain the information they learned in school while they are on break. However, there is a debate about these projects- should the students or the teachers plan them? Some people say that the students should be designing the projects because they need the experience, freedom, and responsibility that comes with designing a project from scratch. However, I believe that it is more beneficial for the teachers to design the projects rather than the students. I believe this because the teachers know the curriculum better, the students don't have enough experience planning and designing projects, and the students will want to do as little work as possible.

Since the goal of these summer projects is to keep the students from forgetting the material they learned in class, the person most familiar with the material should be the one to plan the project. Teachers design and plan the majority of the projects in school, so they know what to avoid and what they should emphasize to the students.

The teachers can also set guidelines for how they want the project to be done, which allows for a much more organized end product. This doesn't mean that teachers have to plan out everything though. Allowing students the freedom to decide on certain aspects of the project can lead to better work and more focused students. However, letting students design the whole project from scratch is a recipe for disaster.

As previously established, students dont have much experience planning and designing projects. If the planning is left to the students, there will be a large amount of simple mistakes, such as not documenting work, ignoring smaller details that become important later on, etc. These mistakes can pile up and ruin a project. I know that some classes, mainly dual enrollment and AP classes, have projects designed by the students, but those projects are done in a classroom, where the teacher can easily help the students and provide valuable advice. the students would not have access to the same resources when doing a summer project at home, making the designing process much harder for them. that means they waste time on easily avoidable mistakes rather than brainstorming ideas or working on the project.

many students don't like doing a lot of work, especially when they are on break. This means that, if left to design a project by themselves, some students will take shortcuts in order to do as little work as possible. They might plagiarize other people's work, skip important steps in the planning process, etc. I have witnessed this myself when someone in one of my classes last year had to design their own project. They were notoriously lazy, but the student had to do the project to pass the class. In order to get around doing the work, the student payed someone else to do the project for them. They were busted when the teacher asked about the project during the presentation and the student could not answer the questions. Sadly, this mentality is rampant in schools, so letting students design their own project without supervision will completely negate the purpose of the projects for many of the students.

In the end, students simply do not have to drive, nor the experience to design their own projects over the summer. The best way for the projects to be designed would be to have the teachers to create a loose outline, and let the students flesh it out during the last few weeks of school, saving summer break to actually do the project. this allows for teachers to make sure the students are on task and getting the help they need, while also letting the students have freedom in deciding what to do. This can't prevent students from avoiding the work, but it can minimize the amount that do.