National History Day is an event designed to promote the learning and understanding of history. There are actually a bunch of programs (see www.nationalhistoryday.org), but in practical terms, what it comes down to is kids choose a topic that relates to a particular theme (this year: "The Individual In History"), and then do some sort of presentation on that theme. It can be a paper, a Web site, a performance, etc., but most often the kids chose to do displays.
At our middle school, the kids in the 6th and 7th grade Challenge classes participate. This year Lisa decided to get together with a friend and do a group project on Scott Joplin. These projects involve a lot of research, and they have to search out and identify the difference between primary and secondary sources, draw connections, put the topic in historical context, demonstrate how it relates to the yearly theme, explain why it was important in history, etc. In addition to library and Internet research, Lisa and her friend contacted museums back East for information, etc. And that's all before they start the display. In addition, they also had to produce a variety of collateral material, and answer questions from judges about their project. It's a good solid three months of a lot of hard work.
The kids were judged in "flights", groups of 8-9 projects. Lisa and her friend took third in their flight of eight, which is pretty good, except that the top two get to go on to state competition, so they just missed that. But they had one of the more impressive displays there (most kids just do posters), and got a lot of attention for it.
(Oh yeah, and they had a CD player inside the piano playing Joplin rags. It was pretty cool.)
