Once again Arlington Public School students received excellent recognition for their projects at the National History Day Massachusetts State contest held in Winchester. APS entries included one project from Arlington High School, five from the Ottoson Middle School, and three from the Gibbs School. Four of the Ottoson projects received first or second place designation and will go on to compete in the National Contest. The fifth OMS project and a project from Gibbs each received an Honorable Mention and a Special Award.
The theme for this year’s NHD contest was Frontiers in History: People, Places, Ideas. The following OMS projects are moving forward.
The following projects were also recognized
The projects that were entered in the NHD contest are the culmination of six months of work. During the process, the students were guided by Social Studies teacher advisors–Adam Amster at Gibbs, Jason Levy at OMS, and Emily Tessier at AHS. The advisors taught the students about time management, narrowing down a topic and connecting it to the theme, writing a thesis, and conducting research according to Modern Language Association guidelines. After researching their topic based on the theme, the students chose a project category that best demonstrated their topic and thesis.
All projects included a Process Paper which described how students conducted their research and how their project and thesis related to the theme. All entries also included an Annotated Bibliography which was separated into Primary and Secondary Sources. The judges reviewed the projects in the website categories prior to the in-person competition and then asked the students questions during a 15-minute interview. Each documentary project was played for the judges at the Contest and followed by questions.. These are also open for viewing by the public.
The National Contest will be held at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD, on June 11-15. Congratulations to all the students who took part in the NHD Regional (March 15) and Massachusetts State (April 1) Contests and good luck to those moving on.
