Gearing up for History Day

Students across the country are gearing up for History Day. Sue DeNio of the Minnesota Historical Society represents our region and explains what the event is all about, “History Day is a co-curricular activity for grades 6-12. It focuses on research analysis. And then there’s a theme they have to follow.”

This year’s theme is Frontiers in History.

Students must chose a topic from at least 20 years ago. That way they can see the long term impact. Sue explains, “Students can chose to work alone or with someone else. And they can chose to present it as a website, research paper, an exhibit board, a performance, or a documentary.”

Duluth East Junior Leah Colemans says her project is about scientist James Hanson’s 1988 testimony to congress, “It’s kind of the first time somebody talked about climate change and pushed the government to take serious action on it.”

Coleman says she enjoys the research aspects of participating in History Day.

Duluth East Sophomore Tavin Roth researched the Pentagon Papers, “It’s main a supreme court case. The New York Times v. the United States. It was a frontier for freedom of the press because the government couldn’t stop these news papers from publishing documents about the Vietnam War.”

Roth tells us he’s enjoyed doing History Day projects since middle school.

The regional competition is open to the public. That’s Saturday at UMD from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m..

DeNio adds that this is a teacher initiated project, “So if you know a student whose school doesn’t do it- contact the teacher. Then they can initiate it. We can come in and help.”