text: Not only does student-designed summer projects help students become more independent, but teaches creative thinking. When you were in preschool, you tended think outside the box or color outside the lines because you were encouraged do so: you were encouraged to be imaginative. School encourages you to think creatively or be creative, but how can you do that when your creative abilities are being restricted? Summer projects that are student-designed is a good start for learning creative thinking because it gives the student time to learn and adjust by themselves. If students were able to think more creative, they would be able to learn how to think above and beyond and might even bring some new and reformed ideas to the table. Having school projects be student-designed is relevant to creative thinking because it is a skillset that you won't only need at school but in the workplace as well, because businesses thrive off of new ideas to help increase profit.