text: The biggest downside to students picking their own topic is that teachers grading summer projects or presentation may not understand the work or topic from a project the student has dedicated the summer to. If teachers picked the topic for students to focus on, they would have prior knowledge of the topic and know that students can successfully complete the project from other students that might. But this could be avoided by having students submit their topic online over the summer so teachers know what they can do to be prepared. Students can then meet with three or four teachers, one of which could be someone with some prior knowledge of the topic, and students can go more in depth into their project. Teachers can ask questions making it more like a discussion that the student can lead instead of a student presenting to a class of their peers.