Students

If you were chosen as a regional finalist and will be headed to the State History Day competition on May 1, you have an opportunity to get a bit of extra help with your project. The History Day staff will be conducting Category Help Sessions for any state-bound students who want some feedback as they make changes to their projects.

Twenty-minute sessions with HD staffers will be available on one of two dates:

• Tuesday, April 6: 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
• Saturday, April 10: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

If you would like to take advantage of this great opportunity, e-mail Jessica Ellison with the following information:

• Your name (and group members’ names, if applicable)
• Your project category
• Your school
• Your preferred date and time

These help sessions are first-come, first-served. We will try to accommodate time requests. If you choose to sign up, bring your project (performers, be prepared to perform live) and your bibliography. Staff will review your project and make suggestions for improvement. DO NOT sign up if you are unwillingly to make some changes to your project. HD staff is happy to help you, but you have to be ready to take advice and run with it.

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Many students are using online citation programs, such as Easy Bib or Noodle Bib, to generate their citations. While these programs can sometimes be helpful as students assemble their bibliographies, there are certain flaws that can result in incorrect citations. For example, when using Easy Bib’s MLA style to cite a government document, the citation formula does not ask for an original date of publication. Students citing the United States Constitution, as found on the Library of Congress website, will be asked for the date the document was published on the website and the date the document was accessed, but not for the original publication date.

Be cautious of online citation generators. History Day rules require the bibliography citations to be in either MLA or Turabian style, and certain citations assembled online do not match either of these. In general, it is always a good idea to have students use the printed guides, “A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations” by Kate Turabian or “MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers” by Joseph Gibaldi, instead of using the online generators. It’s similar to the skill of telling time or doing long division; digital clocks and calculators are available, but students still need to learn how to read traditional clocks and do long division by hand. Additionally, the online generators seem easier, but in many cases it is more complicated than simply referencing one of these books.

If the books are not available at your school library, here are a few helpful citation guides online for Turabian and MLA.

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Welcome to regional event season! Our events begin today with Metro Senior at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, and throughout the month of March, 11 other events will take place at various locations. To see a list of all event locations, visit the Event Info website.

If you are new to the History Day competition process, here are some helpful hints to get you through your exciting, yet sometimes nerve-wracking experience at the regional events.

1. Get your registration forms in on time. Schedules need to be made in advance, and if we don’t have your forms well before the event, we don’t know that you need a space at the event.

2. Dress accordingly. Remember that this is an academic competition, and you are presenting yourself as a historian. Leave your pajama pants and ratty t-shirts at home!

3. Bring at least four paper copies of your bibliography and process paper. Don’t bring them only on a flash drive!

4. Arrive early to register and check out your judging space. It’s good to know the layout of your judging room or where your exhibit will be.

5. Greet the judges with a smile and a handshake. Don’t be too nervous around the judges; they are there to learn from your project.

6. View other people’s projects. This is a time for you to learn, too.

7. If you advance to state, your registration deadline is April 2, 2010.

8. Enjoy yourself! This is a great time to present your work, hang out with your friends, look at some amazing projects, and add something impressive to your academic resume.

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There is exciting progress in the effort to digitize historic newspapers in Minnesota!

The Minnesota Historical Society has been working with the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), thanks to a grant made possible by NEH and the Library of Congress.  They have just finished their first grant cycle and have digitized and made available online 25 years of The Saint Paul Globe Newspaper (and its earlier titles: Daily Globe and St. Paul Daily Globe), from 1880-1905 and one year of the Minneapolis Journal newspaper (1901).

These newspapers can be found on the Chronicling America website – http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

In the next grant cycle more years of the Journal will be added, as well as several other newspaper titles from around Minnesota.  About 15 other states also have newspapers up on Chronicling America. Compared to the days of looking at microfilm, Chronicling America is an amazing resource – both for the ability to view the newspapers and to search their content online.  Images can be downloaded and printed out.

You can search by newspaper and year, and can search individual newspaper pages using a keyword search.  The keyword search is particularly neat and is an extremely fast way to search for information on your topic. This is a great way to access primary sources and find visuals for your projects in the form of newspaper headlines and political cartoons.

If you are doing a Minnesota topic be sure to check out the website!

Happy Researching! - Laura

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So, you’ve narrowed your topic, done some preliminary research, and decided to present via exhibit board. What’s next? One of the most important aspects of your History Day project is the thesis statement. Why? Because the thesis statement holds the entire project together. If judges were to only read your thesis statement, would it make the central argument of your project? What exactly is a thesis statement? Thesis = Topic + Theme + Impact. The thesis statement is not for introducing your project, but creating an argument that expresses your topic’s significance and demonstrates how the theme, “Innovation in History: Impact and Change” plays the central part of your project.

When is the best time to write your thesis statement? Thesis statements are always a work- in-progress among students. You may think you have your thesis statement together but then gather information that turns your project in a different direction. You may have many different thesis statements and that is okay, however, by the time you present your project, you should have your thesis concrete and supported with evidence. Let’s take a look at a “Don’t” and “Do” example:

Don’t: Television helped John F. Kennedy win the 1960 election.

The problem with this thesis is that it is lacking specific information and there is no concrete evidence to support the claim.

Do: Television was a new communication tool widely available during the 1960 presidential campaign. Senator John F. Kennedy’s innovative use of this mass medium, particularly in the televised presidential debates, helped secure him the presidency over Vice President Richard M. Nixon. Kennedy’s victory marked a new era of political campaigning and change the way Americans understand and receive their political candidates.

Also make sure to work the theme words into your thesis statement, judges love that…

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Think you’re settled on your History Day topic?  Before getting too far into your research, you should be sure that your topic isn’t too broad or general, making your research seem like a mountain you can’t climb.  Think of narrowing your topic down by using a funnel.  When you begin, at the top, wide part of the funnel, you have a topic that could go in too many different directions or has too much information to sift through.

To avoid a topic that is too general, we will use the funnel to narrow the idea to a more manageable topic.  Let’s use the invention of the automobile as an example.  Too broad right?  Here are a few steps to get you to that focused topic.

- After you choose a preliminary invention, innovative idea, or method, narrow down to a specific time period, person involved or place.  In our example, we could take a look at Henry Ford and his impact on the automobile industry but this is still too broad of a topic.  Let’s keep narrowing.

Tip: Here is where you can choose one of the “W Questions” (who, what, where, when, why) to focus on. 

- From there, narrow further to an event in the time period, specific aspect of the innovation, or particular idea or method.  Relating this step to our topic, we could research Henry Ford’s innovation of the assembly line.  See how we’re narrowing the topic down?

- Finally, draw conclusions; demonstrate how the innovation may have made an impact or change in history.  Our final topic could be drawing conclusions about how the assemble line changed industries and its long term impact.

The funnel, it works!

Remember, projects using our example would not be about the history of the assembly line, but rather, drawing conclusions and demonstrating how the innovation changed industries.

Good luck and happy researching!

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The week of December 7 is a power week of resources for History Day teachers and students. If you need a little boost before the holidays, join us for some professional development or gather your students for a library day.

Monday, December 7. Ultimate History Day Workshop, Minnesota History Center. If you are new to History Day, this is the workshop for you. The Ultimate workshop covers the basics of History Day, classroom strategies for implementing the program, and multiple examples of student work.

Tuesday, December 8. Advanced History Day Workshop, Minnesota History Center. This workshop covers more advanced aspects of the History Day program, including strategies for teaching thesis statements, analysis and project development.

Wednesday, December 9. Category Workshop, Minnesota History Center. All five History Day categories will be covered in-depth, with information about teaching each of the categories to your students. The website category and its new rules will be addressed at this workshop.

Saturday, December 12. History Day Hullabaloo, Minneapolis Central Library. Students can receive hands-on research and analysis help from History Day staff and librarians from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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For many History Day students, research will entail a few trips to the school library and multiple trips to the Internet. But the school library only has so many books on World War II and women’s suffrage, and the Internet certainly has its limitations. Encouraging students (or enticing them with extra credit) to move beyond school walls and the allure of Google will not only improve their research experience and skills, but it will also help them create more well-rounded projects.

• Conduct Interviews. Students who interview participants in historic events or experts on historical topics come away with a face-to-face connection to their topic. Try local community colleges, veterans’ groups or county historical societies for potential interviewees.
• Visit Local Repositories. County historical societies often have gems within their resource collections, including war letters, scrapbooks, local newspapers, church records and immigration resources. The Minnesota Historical Society has links to several state organizations.
• Take a Research Field Trip. Either as a class or individually, student research field trips can present excellent resources. Historic sites are fun and hands-on, but they can also be considered primary sources.
• Visit a Large University Library. University libraries can be intimidating, but if you get in contact with the librarians beforehand, they can often have resources, programs or staff prepared to help students navigate the floors upon floors of resources.
• Contact Long-Distance Repositories. If the resources a student needs are only available at a university or museum several states away, they might give up since they cannot travel to the repository itself. But students can contact the librarians or educators at that facility, and oftentimes negotiate interviews or photocopies of documents.
• Access Business Archives. Organizations like Wells Fargo and Mayo Clinic often have archives that relate to their business activities, or have accessioned their documents to another respository.

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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!

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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.

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