text: Having a teacher assigned project does have an upside. This will give the students structure and something to base their project on instead of having all the options in the world and not being able to choose one. In school, students are normally more prepared if it is a topic they have been learning about and have background knowledge on compared to a project half way through a topic, or even towards the beginning. If students are given a short book or even a PowerPoint on the topic at hand they will be more successful in completing their project.