Why do you have to create student = students[i]; instead of just using students[i]?

// Why doesn't this work the same? //
for(var i = 0; i < students.length; i++) { 
  message += '<h2>Student: ' + students.name + '</h2>';
  message += '<p>Track: ' + students.track + '</p>';
}

This doesn't work because students is an Array, which is why we loop through it.

Each item in the Array is a student, so in the first (working) example, we assign the current Array item as student for easier readability, primarily.

Now, you could do the same without assigning the current iteration of students to a variable, although in that case we would need to use bracket notation on the Array of the current Index -- the value of i in the for loop. This bracket notation is visible in the working example when we assign student to the current iteration of students.

In order for your example, which I quoted above, to work we need to add that bracket notation. This would look like the following:

// This will work now //
for(var i = 0; i < students.length; i++) { 
  message += '<h2>Student: ' + students[i].name + '</h2>'; // <-- Note: the bracket notation
  message += '<p>Track: ' + students[i].track + '</p>'; // <-- Note: the bracket notation
}

I hope that helps to clarify.

Ah, yes that makes sense. I appreciate you showing how a tweak to my code could have worked, which in turn clarifies why the instructor did it the other way in his example.