What Is the 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?
Each year, National History Day uses a new theme. The 2013 theme is Turning Points in History: People, Events, Ideas. The intentional selection of the theme for National History Day is to encourage students to drill down into historical content to develop perspective and understanding by conducting extensive primary and secondary research.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 are judged on historical quality, use of primary sources, clear 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 come to the Athens event for interviews.
Top winners from the Northeast Georgia National History Day may advance to the state-level competition in Macon, Georgia, in May and to the national competition in College Park, Maryland, in June.
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
Wednesday, 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.