The National History Day in Missouri state contest will take place Saturday, April 10, on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia. National History Day (NHD) is an educational outreach program of The State Historical Society of Missouri and the Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Columbia. The Missouri state contest judging begins at 9 a.m. with award ceremonies for both Junior and Senior Divisions scheduled for 4 p.m. in Jesse Hall Auditorium. The first and second place winners will qualify for the National History Day event, June 13-17, 2010, at the University of Maryland-College Park. Prizes are awarded at all levels, including college scholarships for national winners.
Thousands of students participated in regional contests throughout Missouri hoping for a chance to compete at the state level. This year’s theme is “Innovation in History: Impact and Change.” After research and exploration of the topic, students choose from several formats for their finished product, including research papers, dramatic performances, multimedia documentaries, museum-type exhibits, and Web site design. Students compete as individuals or in small groups in either the Junior Division (grades 6-8) or Senior Division (grades 9-12). This year’s theme encouraged students to examine the historical significance and impact of a new idea, invention, creation, or discovery in any period of history. Students responded with projects that investigate the impact of Pyrex Glass, inventions displayed at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, and Egypt’s Amarna Revolution.
NHD is a yearlong program dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of history in elementary and secondary schools. Each fall, more than 700,000 students nationwide begin the program, competing in a series of history contests in their local districts and state. The NHD annual student competition is the nation’s oldest and most highly regarded humanities contest for students in grades 6-12. NHD is open to all students-public, private, parochial, and home-school; urban, suburban and rural.
The State Historical Society of Missouri was established in 1898 and is located on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia. The Western Historical Manuscript Collection (WHMC) is a joint collection of the University of Missouri and the State Historical Society. The mission of the joint collection is to collect, preserve, and make available primary source materials that illuminate the history of Missouri and the region.