Some of you may have students who are already thinking about primary sources for their History Day projects. But even if that step is far in the future for you and your students, it’s not a bad idea to start compiling a list of reliable websites where students can access some excellent primary sources. Of course, we always encourage students to get their hands on actual primary sources at libraries and archives, but the Internet is becoming a better and better resource for young researchers.

Here are a few sites that have some excellent primary sources available:

Library of Congress American Memory: Encourage your students to narrow the field as much as possible by choosing specific collections. The Teachers’ section of this website also has some excellent, subject-sorted sources.

National Archives History Day Resources: The Archives assembled some of their sources related to particular Innovation topics, as well as connections to other topics within the subject areas.

Harvard University Library Open Collections: Harvard has collected some intriguing sources based on four different topics — Women and Work, Immigration, Diseases and Epidemics, and Expeditions and Discoveries. Women Working is particularly helpful.

Yale Law School Avalon Project: The documents from Yale Law span several thousand years, although more are available in recent centuries. The topics are mainly law and diplomacy.

Famous Trials: A law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City has assembled documents and context about more than 50 famous trials, from the Trial of Socrates to the Trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.

American Journeys: This collection contains thousands of documents related to the exploration of America, from 1000 to 1844, including the journals of Lewis and Clark.

There are many more fantastic websites with extensive primary sources, but these are a few reliable sites with vast holdings. If you encounter others, feel free to pass along the tip!

Parents, as the holiday season is nearing we all know that the calendars book up pretty fast. I want to let you in on a few events that are held around the metro to help your students expand and improve their history day projects.

The Hennipen County Libraries have been a fabulous partner in encouraging research through visits to the their facilities. They are providing four opportunities throughout the winter to visit their libraries and receive personalized help with almost any aspect of a History Day project. Bring your students who are curious about narrowing their topics, developing a thesis, identifying primary sources, and using library materials.

History Day staff will also be on hand at the events so feel free to come and ask us the tough questions.  Below you can find the dates and locations of the Hullabaloos, so make sure to mark one of them on your winter calendar now!

Central Library - 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis

Saturdays: Dec. 12th, Jan. 16th, Feb. 13th   11 AM - 3 PM

Ridgedale Library - 12601 Ridgedale Dr., Minnetonka

Tuesday: Jan. 12th  5:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Our theme workshop on October 19 turned into a great discussion about the 2010 theme, “Innovation in History: Impact and Change.” This is a theme with a lot of nuance, and the attending teachers and staff contributed some really interesting insights about the little quirks of “Innovation.” Here’s a list of some of key points to emerge from our workshop.

• Students must consider an innovation’s time and place. If students wanted to study the innovation of peaceful protest, they would have to research back thousands of years to find the inception of that concept. Instead, they could study how a peaceful protester, such as Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr., used peaceful protest methods that were innovative for their particular time and place.
• Invention and innovation are not interchangeable words. Many inventions go through several modifications before they achieve success, but the end result is not necessarily an innovation. Edison’s lightbulb was not an innovation; many others had created some form of that invention. Edison’s innovation, instead, was the system he helped create that made use of the lightbulb easier.
• Not all innovations have a significant impact. Students must consider if an innovation significantly changed the way people lived or was a significant change to society. Women’s bloomers changed the way that women were able to function in society, but fashion innovations such as the mini-skirt or bellbottoms did not affect the same sort of significant change.
• Non-invention innovations can often allow for greater depth of research. Instead of researching the invention of the camera, students could research the innovative ways that cameras were used in wartime. Governmental innovations, such as the Three-Fifths Compromise or the Homestead Act, are great examples, too.
• Innovations do not have to have a “positive” impact. The Third Reich’s use of the Lebensborn program, which provided resources to women and families who had “Aryan” children, was very innovative, but had certain eugenics qualities about it.

When helping students choose topics, guide them through their interests and help them ask questions about time, place and significance. Students may settle on an invention, because they believe that is the only course, but you can help them choose more creative topics by exploring the world outside of the creation of a new piece of technology.

2009 was a great year for Minnesota History Day –  we had a number of new schools participating, the overall quality of the projects was improved, and seven groups of our students earned medals at nationals in June — and the staff has high hopes for 2010 as well.

Here are some bits and pieces as we start up another History Day season…

• If you enrolled as a History Day educator last year, you will be receiving your introductory packet in the mail shortly. If you have not yet enrolled, please visit our website and click on the “Enrollment” tab to ensure that you receive our free mailings throughout the year. Please pay particular attention to the website category details in your packet; the rules have changed for 2010!
• The theme for 2010 is “Innovation in History: Impact and Change.” It will be a tricky theme, as students mull over the meaning of innovation and determine how their topic affected significant change. We will be discussing the theme at length and compiling topic ideas at our first-ever theme-specific workshop on Monday, October 19. You can register online and be part of the discussion!
• History Day staff are shifting duties as we begin another school year. Check the website and be on the lookout for updates about your regional History Day representatives!

As always, feel free to contact us with questions at historyday@mnhs.org or (651) 259-3426.

As of yesterday, seven of the 12 History Day events are complete. We have seen a lot of excellent projects and are anticipating many more at the remaining five events.

Yesterday, at the South Central History Day event in Mankato, an incident reminded the History Day staff of the great dedication of History Day teachers and students. The Northfield delegation was involved in a serious bus accident on their way to the event. Despite the tragedy and confusion and some pretty shook-up kids, the Northfield delegation soldiered on to the competition and performed marvelously. We want to commend them for pressing on and allowing the students to present their hard work!

History Day and a few students were also featured in a short news spot on a local Mankato news station. For the clip, check out the KEYC website and scroll down to South Central History Day.

Just a reminder to teachers who have students advancing to state: The History Day staff will be hosting a full day of help sessions for students on Saturday, April 4. Students can sign up for 20-minute time slots by e-mailing me the following information:

1. Name
2. School
3. Category (exhibit, documentary, performance, website, paper)
4. Preferred time slot

I still have plenty of spots left. This is a great opportunity for state qualifiers to get individual help with their projects.

Remember that state registration forms are due to the History Day office by Friday, April 3. This is a received-by date, not a postmark date.

For those teachers who had students submit papers or websites for judging yesterday, here is what your students can expect from the judging process.

1. This week, the History Day staff will sort all the papers and websites into judge teams and send them out to our judges.
2. The judges will evaluate the papers and websites and choose their top entries. Judge decisions are due to us by March 27.
3. Paper and website finalists will be notified by the History Day staff of their advancement to the next level by April 3. Students who do not receive notification will not be advancing.
4. Finalists will receive their judge sheets and can make any revisions they choose for the state competition. Revised papers and websites are due to the History Day office by April 20.
5. Although only notified finalists will be interviewed at the state contest, all paper and website students will receive their judge sheets by about the second week of April.
6. Finalists will be interviewed at the state competition on Saturday, May 2. Two papers and two websites from each age division will be chosen to represent Minnesota at the national competition. Non-finalist papers will be on display at the state event, but unfortunately, space and technology will not allow us to display all websites.

If you have any questions about this process, please let us know. Finalists are encouraged to make changes before state, based on judge comments and teacher input.

The Dirksen Congressional Center, based in Pekin, Illinois, is offering a four-day workshop for teachers of history, government, civics, political science or social studies called “Congress in the Classroom.” The workshop, scheduled for July 27-30 in East Peoria, Illinois, focuses on the exchange of ideas and information for teaching about Congress. Sessions focus on Congressional scholarship and on methods for teaching students about the federal legislature.

This appears to be a great opportunity to expand your knowledge and teaching skills on Congressional subject matter. The workshop is limited to 40 teachers and is competitive. You can find more information about the program and applications, which are due by April 15, on their website.

Another, more local opportunity can provide subsidies for school trips to Minnesota’s historical sites and museums. These subsidies are made available through Sesquicentennial funding through June 30, and can be used for field trips to one of the following Minnesota Historical Society sites:

• MInnesota History Center
• Minnesota State Capitol
• James J. Hill House
• Historic Forestville
• Jeffers Petroglyphs
• Mille Lacs Indian Museum
• Northwest Company Fur Post
• Forest History Center

To apply, visit the education website.

Our first regional event is Thursday, March 5, and they continue through Tuesday, March 31. Here is some information to help you and your students survive the craziness that is regional event season.

• Make sure you send in your school’s registration forms by the deadline, which is two weeks before your regional event. Late forms delay event schedules.
• When you check the event schedule, posted on our website a few days before the event, check for name misspellings. These are the names that will go on certificates, so you’ll want to ensure they’re spelled correctly. Also check for missing entries — we don’t want to leave anyone out who is supposed to be competing!
• Unless it is an emergency, we can’t change judging times after the schedule has been posted.
• Information and directions for all events is posted on our website. You can send parents here to print out PDFs if they are coming to view the event.

Please feel free to contact us, and please be patient with us during this busy time. This is a great time of year, but the sheer size of the events certainly keeps everyone on their toes. Here’s a little glimpse of the regional participation in Minnesota for 2009:

• 12 regional events within 26 days
• 218 schools participating in regional events
• Approximately 4,300 students participate in the regional events
• About 1,100 students (excluding paper and website) advance to the state competition

Hey Students-

 
So, how are the History Day projects coming along? Everything making sense? Have you been able to connect your person’s actions to a legacy? I hope so, because as I am sure you know that the due dates for projects are fast approaching.

 
Need some last minute sources? Just use your library card. Going to your library is the quickest way to obtain some instant History Day help not only because of the books, but also because librarians will be excited to help you.

 
Also, with your library card, in most areas throughout the state, you can access their online databases. The best one for primary sources is the Historic New York Times online, which allows you to access historic newspaper articles.  This is like a google but for newspaper articles.  These articles are practically begging to be used on you projects so check it out! If you are unsure about the specifics of accessing the site you should contact your local librarian for assistance.

 
Good luck and see you all soon.

Parents, as many of you are experiencing your students are well on their way to creating the final product for History Day in Minnesota. I have had many calls in the past couple of weeks asking if we have any of those famous poster boards that you can normally find at craft stores.  And the answer is YES!!!

This is a popular time of the year for students to be completing projects for science fair and other academic competitions so many of the stores are sold out of these background boards. But here at the History Center we have some great boards that teachers through out the state order to help push their students to the next level.

Unlike the typical science fair boards, these exhibit boards have proportional panel and more height. This creates a more balanced display of images, sources and text. The double-thick, corrugated boards are 48 inches tall and 72 inches wide. When displaye there are 23.5 inch wide side panels and a 25 inch wide center panel. We are also offering a title panel this year to complete the exhibit.

If you are interested in purchasing an exhibit board please contact me at (651)-259-3426. The cost of the board is $7.00 and the title panel is $2.00. Unfortunately in smaller quantities we can not ship the boards so they will have to be picked up here at the History Center in St. Paul.