21 January  2017

Dear Parents,
We want to give you some information about National History Day (NHD), our major English/Social Studies project for Spring Semester. NHD will be a big part of the semester grade. In a sense students have been working on it since the beginning of the school year.

Most students (but not all) are continuing on with the topics they chose for MLARC (Modern Language Association Research Casebook). That project was about learning to find, evaluate and cite historical sources. NHD requires students to think about what they have learned about their topics, develop a thesis (an argument or conclusion), and to support that thesis with historical evidence.


This year’s theme is Taking a Stand in History.

This project is quite a bit different from “reports” they may have done in the past.
The projects must show evidence of deep research and analysis and interpretation, not just a bunch of facts.

Who
  • Every freshman and sophomore at TEC will do a project.
  • Students can work individually or in a group of up to 3.
  • Group members can be any TEC students.

Contest
  • The regional contest is Saturday, March 4, 2017 at Bowling Green State University
  • The project is required; entering the contest is not.
  • 60-70% of our kids usually participate in the contest.
  • We usually have 20-30 kids whose projects qualify for the state NHD contest at The Ohio State University in Columbus on Saturday, April 29, 2017.
  • There is an $8 fee for the contest
  • Registration for the contest closes on Friday February 5, 2017.
  • Registration info here.
  • Registration link here.



Project Types
  • Exhibit 
  • Performance – 10 minute skit 
  • Documentary – 10 minute video 
  • Website – created through the Weebly Web Portal on the NHD website (Note: websites will lock 7-10 days before the contest).

Project Examples
NHD Website (lots of info here including the contest rules)
http://www.nationalhistoryday.org/

Here is the presentation we used to introduce the project to the kids.
 
Finally
  • There will be some class time to work on this project but most of the work will be done outside of class. 
  • We will be continuing with the rest of our curriculum while NHD continues in the background.
  • This project cannot be put off.
  • This project was introduced to the kids in early December

Thank you,

Mrs. Al-Hayani
Mr. Nissen
Ms. Albrecht
Ms. Kwiatkowski