What is National History Day Contest?
National History Day (NHD) provides an exciting way for students throughout the country to study and learn about historical issues, ideas, and events.
As students research historical subjects, create entries, and compete in district, state and national contests, they acquire useful historical knowledge and perspective and develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills that will help them analyze information and make effective decisions in the future professional and personal lives.
How does the National History Day Contest Work?
The NHD program-year begins in the summer, when NHD Coordinators and teachers begin to get curriculum and contest materials for the next school year. Teachers introduce the program to their students, who select and start researching their topics for local contests in the spring. Each year, National History Day uses a new theme. The intentional selection of the theme for National History Day is to encourage students to push past the antiquated view of history as mere facts and dates and drill down into historical content to develop perspective and understanding by conducting extensive primary and secondary research.
Students may enter in one of five categories: paper, exhibit, performance, documentary or web site; entries in all categories except papers can be by individuals or groups of 2-5 students. Projects in all categories are judged on historical quality, use of primary sources, relation to theme, clarity of presentation, and rules compliance. For 2013, Northeast Georgia entries in the Paper category will be pre-screened, and only 9-12 papers at each level will be invited to attend the Athens event for interviews.
Top winners from the Northeast Georgia National History Day may advance to the state-level competition in Macon, Georgia on May 28, 2012. Winners at the state level may advance to the national competition in College Park, Maryland, on June 10-14, 2012.
Information for Teachers
1) The National Archive has provided samples of lessons and original sources. 2) NHD.org also offers curriculum materials and workshops for teachers, designed to facilitate excellence in the teaching of history in U.S. Schools.
Application Deadline
Monday, January 16, 2013
Papers and Web Sites in their final version must be submitted with application by January 16, 2013.
$10
Students interested in performing their own historical research. The competition has two divisions. Junior Division includes grades 6-8; Senior Division includes grades 9-12.