National History Day

Deborah L. Luchenbill, State Coordinator NHD Missouri

The National History Day in Missouri (NHDMO) program is looking for judges and other volunteers for the April 21, 2012, state contest.  NHDMO, the state affiliate of the National History Day program, is a year-long academic program for sixth-through twelfth grade students.  In addition to expanding their knowledge of their chosen topics, the program helps prepare students for college, the work force, and good citizenship.  They conduct historical research, interpretation, and creative expression as participants in the program, and they present their findings at a series of contests.  NHDMO is sponsored by the State Historical Society of Missouri, in partnership with the Missouri Humanities Council.  Over 2,500 students in Missouri participate annually, and over 600 are expected to advance from regional contests to the state competition, held in Columbia.

Students’ research focuses on this year’s national theme, “Revolution, Reaction, and Reform in History.”  Within the theme, they can choose any topic they wish—local, state, national, or international—from any era of history.  Students explore historically significant revolutions and/or instances of reaction or reform, place them into historical context, and analyze their impact in history.  They present their research and analysis in one of five formats—research papers, museum-style exhibits, dramatic performances, multimedia documentaries, or interpretive Web sites—at a series of regional, state, and national contests.

For the state contest on April 21, NHDMO 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, and video or Web site production.  Judges are placed in teams that balance history with other talents and new judges with experienced judges.  Other volunteers can help with registration, selling t-shirts, “guarding” the doors while judging is going on, and more.  Seeing the excitement and the fantastic work of these young people is so much fun that many of our volunteers come back year after year!  For more information, please see the Web site, http://mo.nhd.org/volunteersalumni.  You can contact the state coordinator at 573-882-0189 or HistoryDay@umsystem.edu.

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