History Day provides Manatee County students a chance to develop a variety of skills

By CARL MARIO NUDI

For many middle and high school students history classes can be somewhat boring no matter how the teacher presents the subject.

But Melissa Porter, education and volunteer coordinator at the Manatee Village Historical Park, said the National History Day program has inspired some students to excel in their studies.

“We’ve had students who start middle school failing in their FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test), participate in History Day, and that just sparks their interests in history because it’s not something in a text book,” said Porter, who has coordinated the local History Day program for several years.

National History Day is a national organization based in College Park, Md., with state affiliates, which in turn has local groups participating.

The local groups organize a yearly contest where students from sixth to 12th grade can participate.

Manatee County Historical Commission, Inc. and the Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court’s Department of Historical Resources under the direction of County Comptroller, Angelina “Angel” Colonneso sponsored Manatee History Day. Manatee Village Historical Park staff led the organization and preparations of the event.

The students do academic historical research on a subject of their choosing based on the national organization’s theme and produce exhibit boards, historical papers, websites, video documentaries, or live performances.

A small army of judges scores the projects and winners are picked to attend the Florida History Day competition May 5 through May 7 in Tallahassee, where they have a chance at winning a trip to the National History Day event June 9 through June 13 at the University of Maryland.

This year’s theme is “Triumph and Tragedy in History.”

“Last year 201 students participated, and 24 went to state with 13 projects,” said Porter, who worked for the clerk of the court at the courthouse for two and one-half years, before moving to Manatee Village Historical Park for the past eight years. “In 2015 we sent seven students to nationals.”

As of Jan. 17, the following schools have registered to participate: Palmetto Charter School, Haile Middle School, Nolan Middle School, King Middle School, Sugg Middle School, Saint Stephens School, St. Joseph’s School, and State College of Florida Collegiate School.

Other schools may have registered before the Jan. 22 deadline.

Porter said she knows that participating in the History Day contest has had an impact on students.

“I run into students (throughout the county) all the time,” Porter said. “These students go on to major universities and do very well.”

Participating students have a chance to use and improve their research, writing, computer, playwriting, filmmaking, and art and design skills in their projects.

“Students get to interact with real historical documents and get to dig deeper in historical events and find out why something happened,” Porter said. “This sometimes leads into interests in other academics and their academic performance improves.”

According to the National History Day website: “An independent study from 2011 found that participation in the National History Day Contest benefits students far beyond the competition.”

The Manatee County History Day T-shirts highlight several of the skills needed to be successful in the completion.

The T-shirts list that a student gains academic confidence; critical thinking skills; a historical perspective; interview, organizational, and research skills; and becomes better at time management.

To help the students get prepared for their research and to complete their project, Porter and her co-organizer, Bridget Donahue-Farrell, curator at the Manatee Village Historical Park, started a History Day Club, where, starting in August, students came to the Manatee County Central Public Library from 6 to 7:30 p.m. once a month to learn how to produce a History Day project.

They learned about the History Day theme, how to pick a topic and think about what to research, how to organize their research, create bibliographies of their research, and plan their thesis papers or project designs.

Ngov, 10, a sixth-grader at King Middle School, was one of the members of the History Day Club.

Ngov was doing an exhibit board on the Seige of Vicksburg, Miss.

“The Civil War just came to my mind and when I looked it up, Vicksburg came up as the most important battle,” he said. “I learned that (the Confederates) surrendered because of hunger.”

To prepare for his project, Ngov read books, using the personal memoirs of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Major Gen. William T. Sherman as his primary sources.

He said his exhibit board would have a title, a thesis paper, a background design and photographs.

King Middle School sixth-grader, Sally Lehto, 11, also attended the History Day Club meetings.

Lehto was doing an exhibit board on the Nazi regime in Germany in the first half of the 20th century.

“I have family members who lived in Germany during that time,” she said. “A lot of people were killed during the war.”

And club member Addison Williams, 12, a King Middle School sixth-grader, was also making a display board for her History Day project.

Williams researched Susan B. Anthony and the women’s suffrage movement.

“I was thinking about the school dress code,” she said when asked why she picked the suffrage movement as her subject. “Boys had more things they can wear than girls.”

A lot of restrictions of what girls can wear compared to boys made her think, Williams said.

“I’m enjoying learning about it, but it’s not fun putting it all together (on a display board),” she said.

Judging will be Feb. 9 through Feb. 12, with the winners being announced at a ceremony on Feb. 14.

Judges go through a day of training on how to score the individual projects.

There are between 50 to 75 judges each year.

Cathy Slusser, chief historian with the Clerk of the Court Historical Resources Department started History Day in 1986.

“I found out about National History Day when I was in grad school at (University of South Florida) and had a course in public history,” Slusser said.

“When I interviewed for the job with the clerk’s office in 1984, it was one of the things I mentioned I wanted to do, and within a couple of years we started it,” she said.

Slusser said History Day is important because a whole generation was brought up to think history is not important.

They were taught a list of dates and events and now they do not even have to memorize them – they can just look them up on the internet, she said.

Organizing the Manatee County History Day program is a lot of work for the staff at the Manatee Village Historical Park, which is under the auspices of the Manatee Clerk of the Court’s office.

“We have to teach the teachers and students a whole new way of learning about history,” Slusser said. “They need to find primary sources from the people who lived that history.”

Plus there is the administrative part of the job, such as finding and training judges, logistics, and communicating with teachers and students.

“But we believe it’s really worth it,” Slusser said.

For more information about the Manatee County History Day visit the website at www.manateeclerk.com/departments/historical-resources/manatee-history-day/.

To learn more about the Florida History Day program, go to the website www.floridahistoryday.com.

And for information about National History Day, check out the website www.nhd.org