Social Studies
National History Day
Due: August 12, 2016
The theme for the 2016-2017 school year is ‘Making a Stand in History’.
The themes are chosen to be broad enough to encourage investigation of topics ranging from local history to world
history, and from ancient time to the recent past. To understand the historical importance of your topic you need to ask
questions about time, place and context; cause and effect; change over time; and impact and significance. You must
consider not only when and where events happened, but also why they occurred and what factors contributed to their
development.
Choosing a Topic
Topics for research are everywhere! Think about a time in history or individuals or events that are interesting to you.
Start a list. Read books, newspapers or other sources of information and add to your list. Talk with relatives, neighbors,
or people you know who have lived through a particular time in history that interests you and add more ideas. Keep
thinking, reading and talking to people until you have many ideas that are interesting. Now go back through the list and
circle the ideas that connect with the theme. From the ideas that you circled, select one to begin your research. Keep
your list because you might need it again. Selecting a National History Day topic is a process of gradually narrowing
down the area of history (period or event) that interests you to a manageable subject.
Nothing in history happens in a vacuum. To understand the connections between your topic and the time period, begin
reading about the time period and as you read ask yourself questions:
Why did my topic happen at this particular time and in this particular place?
What were the events or the influences that came before my topic?
How was my topic influenced by and how did it influence the economic, social, political, and cultural climate of the time
period?
All of these questions will help you to build the story of your topic and grasp the historical significance. This will also help
you begin thinking about your thesis.
Develop a Thesis Statement
NHD projects should do more than just tell a story. Every exhibit, performance, documentary, paper and website should
make a point about its topic. To do this, you must develop your own argument of the historical impact of the person,
event, pattern or idea you are studying. The point you make is called a thesis statement. A thesis statement is not the
same as a topic. Your thesis statement explains what you believe to be the impact and significance of your topic in
history. Example:
Topic: Battle of Gettysburg
Thesis Statement: The battle of Gettysburg was a major turning point of the Civil War. It turned the tide of the war from
the South to the North, pushing back Lee’s army that would never fight again on Northern soil and bringing confidence
to the Union army.
Over the summer you should determine what type of project you will be participating in. The categories are as follow:
Exhibition
Drama
Website
Documentary
Research Paper
I am highly recommending that you should consider the drama, the documentary, or the research paper. The reason
why I recommend this to you is because very few students participate in these categories so your chances for moving on
in the competition increases, and they are fun and unique. However, please choose the project you enjoy the most.
Your summer expectation is that you will have your idea for the NHD project and what type of project it is written down.
In addition you should have a written a thesis statement on what the project will encompass as well as having started
your research on this project.
Can you work with someone? The answer to this is yes, but I limit it to only you and one other person. In choosing a
partner your expected work doubles. Each person will research the project and turn in their own required paper work.
The only category you can’t work with a partner is the research paper. For the drama I request no more than 4 people.
This year you will be required to have a minimum of 30 secondary sources and 15 primary sources. A primary source is a
source in which someone witnessed the event and reported on it. A secondary source is that in which the story is being
retold by someone else who didn’t see the event, but was told about it.
Only 25% of your sources can come from internet websites. In school you will be introduced to Galileo. Galileo is a
source that will contain thousands of resources for you to use and it will tell you whether it is a primary or secondary
resource.
Start your research now. When researching make sure you record the title of the book or other resource, the author,
the page number your information comes from or internet address and what you learned from this book or resource.
This keeps for easy recording for the bibliography that you will need for this project.
Great instructions on how to do each project as well as what the requirements are, are found at this website:
www.NHD.org. Everything you need to know is found here. Visit the site often.
Have fun!!!!
Stan Shively
[email protected]