7th & 8th Grade Students Engage in NHD Contest
Students work on presentations incorporating 3D printing with our Glowforge.
“The 2023 National History Day contest theme invites the exploration of topics in the history of science, art, technology, medicine, religion, politics, social change, and the military… as it relates to any aspect of local, regional, national, or world history.”
This year our middle school 7th grade social studies teacher Heather Saia is leading all of her students through this engaging yet challenging experience. Supporting Heather every step along the way has been J’aime Ottaviano (LOLMS Media Specialist) and Bill Eydman (Gifted & Talented). Since early September this team has worked feverishly to help support students through the entire process from creating well-constructed thesis statements, through research, and then synthesizing information into a visual format for presentation.
All 8th-grade students engaged in the NHD experience as well (led by LOLMS SS teacher Olivia Hersant). 55 competed in the contest from both 7th and 8th grade. Regionally, participants are first judged and then have the potential to move on to a state level and even nationals. Last year, one 7th grader qualified for nationals-an incredible feat! This year, so far, ten 8th-grade projects and four 7th-grade projects have qualified for the state level competition which occurs next month. Good luck to all of them! Below is an insight into this experience and the role technology has played.
Q: What specifically are you trying to accomplish with your students and how are you integrating technology into this process?
A: (Heather Saia, 7th Grade SS Teacher)
National History day is a project that provides students an opportunity to learn essential social studies skills. Students learn research and analyzing skills and how to engage with primary and secondary sources. National history day helps students learn how to become critical thinkers and allows them to explore a topic of their choice and analyze information and data to produce a historical thesis.
Q: What specific technology are you using and what does this technology do?
A: (Heather Saia, 7th Grade SS Teacher)
Students have been utilizing online databases such as US History and Context, the Library of Congress, and Britannica. Some students have been putting together a website incorporating text, images, and video to best depict their topic. Editing for any video has been done in iMovie, a simple-to-use yet effective software native to Mac/iOS. Support for this infusion of technology has kept the team busy while at the same time trying to empower students to learn independently. Finally, students creating poster board presentations have leveraged our Glowforge and e-Color+ printer. Take a look at the pics below to see how this technology has enhanced the final product.
STUDENT WORK
Q: Can you provide any feedback or reflection from students or other participants?
“It was good/fun to work and learn with a partner.”
“Very tough at first, but once it got going it was easier because it was a topic I picked.”
“Pick something you really like because you can have fun with it and you can make your own decisions.”
