After a school year of concentrating on National History Day (NHD) on top of regular homework, essays and exams, eighth grader Marissa Stern and ninth grader Grace Reed have returned from the …
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After a school year of concentrating on National History Day (NHD) on top of regular homework, essays and exams, eighth grader Marissa Stern and ninth grader Grace Reed have returned from the national competition in Washington, D.C. having been recognized by some of America’s leading historians.
More than half a million students across America participate in the yearlong NHD program, and about 3,000 of them will make it to the national competition where more than 300 historians and education professionals evaluate, rank and award student work.
This year, 48 middle and high school students represented Rhode Island at the national competition with essays, exhibits, documentaries, and websites at Maryland College Park June 14 to 18.
Stern returned having won the Outstanding State Award for the Junior Division for her website on suffragette, Alice Paul.
Thalia Wood, the social studies department head for Toll Gate and Winman, said this is the first time either of the schools had students win an outstanding award, and said it may be Warwick’s first, at least in the 25 years she has been working with NHD.
Reed’s exhibit on the German Bauhaus Movement was chosen to represent Rhode Island in a NHD exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum.
Wood said after a year of working on NHD these students deserve the recognition.
She finds NHD to be an “invaluable activity to get students to delve into history on a personal level.”
Because students choose their topic, they more often than not choose something they are passionate about and often are dedicated to their projects.
The project requires several forms of research from students, including primary sources, for example Grace and Reed both interviewed professors for their projects.
Due to these requirements, Wood believes NHD is evolving along with social studies.
“It is more critical and requires analyzing material,” Wood said. “Students have to go out and examine history on a firsthand basis instead of just sitting in front of a computer screen.”
For more information on NHD, visit www.nhd.org.
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