National History Day

Contributed by Deborah L. Luchenbill, State Coordinator NHD Missouri

National History Day (NHD), a year-long academic program for 6th to 12th grade students, is centered on historical research, interpretation, and creative expression. In Missouri, NHD is sponsored by The State Historical Society of Missouri and the Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Columbia in partnership with the Missouri Humanities Council.

This year’s NHD theme, “Debate and Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, Consequences” is a challenging and exciting one. Students will be researching historically significant debates and/or instances of diplomacy, studying the historical contexts and impacts in history. Students may research any area or era of history and present their research in one of five formats–research papers, museum-style exhibits, dramatic performances, multimedia documentaries, or interpretive websites–at a series of regional, state, and national contests.

For the state contest on April 9, 2011, National History Day in Missouri must have almost 150 judges and about 30 other volunteers to help out for all or part of the day. Judges should have knowledge of history and/or education or a familiarity with one of the presentation formats, such as drama, speech, communications, video or website production, etc. Judges are placed in teams that balance history with other talents. Other volunteers can help with registration, selling t-shirts, serving the food, “guarding” the doors while judging is going on, etc. It is so much fun to see the excitement of these young people that many of our volunteers come back year after year! For more information, please contact the state coordinator at 573-882-0189 or mailto:HistoryDay@umsystem.edu or visit the web site, http://whmc.umsystem.edu/nhd/nhdmain.html

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