National History Day allows for students to choose their own topics, performtheir own research, and create their own displays, documentaries, and powerpoints. By connecting topics with the contest's theme, students learn to draw conlusions and discover the impact and connectivitity of people, places, and events.
Contact your teacher, school adminstrator, or region coordinator to see how you can be part of this exciting opportunity.
"National History Day (NHD) is a highly regarded academic program for elementary and secondary school students.
Each year, more than half a million students, encouraged by thousands of teachers nationwide participate in the NHD contest. Students choose historical topics related to a theme and conduct extensive primary and secondary research through libraries, archives, museums, oral history interviews and historic sites. After analyzing and interpreting their sources and drawing conclusions about their topics’ significance in history, students present their work in original papers, websites, exhibits, performances and documentaries. These products are entered into competitions in the spring at local, state and national levels where they are evaluated by professional historians and educators. The program culminates in the Kenneth E. Behring National Contest each June held at the University of Maryland at College Park.
In addition to discovering the exciting world of the past, NHD also helps students develop the following attributes that are critical for future success:
Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History