H.B. Whitehorne Middle School sent a large contingent of students to New Jersey’s History Day competition this past Saturday at William Paterson University, and one team will be advancing to the National History Day finals in Washington, D.C., in June.
National History Day is an annual competition–and an an eighth grade social studies elective at HBW–that involves regional and state events. Working within a yearly theme, the students select a topic and do extensive research on it. This year’s theme was “Conflict and Compromise”.
Students can present their projects as an exhibit, performance, documentary, paper, or website. They also must create an annotated bibliography and a process paper. NHD projects teach students to examine history in new and interesting ways and help them develop core research, analysis and literacy skills. The HBW students work under teachers Maggie Manning and Rebecca Hadjiloucas.
Students and Projects:
Dermot Badman wrote a paper titled “The Treaty of Versailles; the Compromise that Started WWII” that argues how the attempted compromise that ended World War I, the Treaty of Versailles, created the conditions that led to the second World War.
Eleanor Newman created a website titled “Conflict and Compromise; How Legislation Helped and Harmed Child Labor Reform” that examines the particular conflicts and compromises within the early child labor laws in the United States.
Shalena Seepaul and Marcos Czupack created a website titled “The Indian Removal Act; The “Compromise” and the Horrors that Followed”, which shows that although Andrew Jackson said removing the Native Americans by means of the Trail of Tears would create peace, it set Native Americans on a path of pain and suffering.
Katie Hunt created an exhibit titled “The Division of Korea: The Ideological Battleground” that traced the events in Korea from the division, through the war and eventual armistice, in order to give perspective on modern day relations and tensions.
Rose Arias and Olivia Tedesco created an exhibit titled “A Step Forward for Equality; The Women’s March of 1913”, which evaluated the role of the March of 1913 in the creation of the 19th Amendment.
Ella Mathewson, Emma Sheehan and Meghan Kenneally created a website entitled “”Failure is Impossible; The Conflicted Road to Women’s Suffrage”, which traced the struggle for women’s right to vote. This team will be representing H.B. Whitehorne at the National History Day finals at the University of Maryland from June 10 to June 14.
