1. HISTORY FAIR AND YOU Tips for Students about History Fair Projects 2013-2014 Theme: Rights and Responsibility in History

2. WHAT IS HISTORY FAIR? What is the National History Day Contest, you ask? Each year more than half a million students just like you participate! You will choose a historical topic related to the annual theme, and then conduct primary and secondary research. You could look through libraries, archives and museums, conduct oral history interviews, and visit historic sites. After you have analyzed and interpreted your sources, and have drawn a conclusion about the significance of your topic, you will then be able to present your work in one of five ways: as a paper, an exhibit, a performance, a documentary, or a web site. The NHD website has tons of information: www.nhd.org

3. Competition Time! In round one, you may enter your work into your school NHD contest where it will be judged. If your work is chosen as one of the best, you will compete in the Lee Regional History Fair in March. If your work is chosen as one of the best at Lee Regionals, you will move on to your state's NHD contest. State contest is held in Austin, Texas in May. If you are a winner at your state NHD contest, you will be eligible to attend the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest at the University of Maryland at College Park in June. This is where the best National History Day projects from across the United States, American Samoa, Guam, International Schools and Department of Defense Schools in Europe all meet and compete.

4. WHAT is the THEME? This year’s theme is Rights and Responsibility in History. What exactly are Rights? A RIGHT IS SOMETHING THAT IS GIVEN OR ESTABLSIHED EITHER THROUGH LAW, BIRTHRIGHT, OR SOCIAL EXPECTATION. IT IS OFTEN PROTECTED OR ENFORCED BY LAW OR CONTRACT ONCE ESTABLISHED. There are the rights to worship, right to a fair trial, right to vote, right to life (the most basic right), right to liberty, and the right to pursuit of happiness. These are the basic rights, but there are also rights of groups and institutions such as rights of gays, rights of minorities, and so on. There are also copy rights, work rights, property rights, gun rights, economic rights, religious rights, and many other rights.

5. WHAT IS A RESPONSIBILITY? Every citizen of the country has certain obligations towards the country, the most important being obedience to the laws of the country. A responsibility is what we are supposed to do or fulfill. Responsibilities are also called our duties and are expected of us. How to they go together? Rights carry responsibilities that citizens have to understand and fulfill. For example, in order to enjoy freedom of speech / expression, we have the responsibility to respect the opinions and beliefs of others.

6. CHOOSING A TOPIC Theme: Rights and Responsibilities in History Interest: Native Americans Topic: Treaty Rights Issue: 1788 Fort Schuyler Treaty OR Theme: Rights and Responsibilities in History Interest: India Topic: Protest Issue/Events: Gandhi’s Salt March OR Theme: Rights and Responsibilities in History Interest: Science / Medicine / Disabilities Topic: Medical rights / Society Issue: The Black Stork Film 1.Understand there is a theme. 2.Pick something that is interesting to you. 3.Pick a topic.. Something to do with your interest. 4.Narrow your choice down to a particular issue.

7. CHOOSING PROJECT PRESENTATION Exhibit – Individual or Group Historical Paper - Individual only Performance - Individual or Group Documentary – Individual or Group Website- Individual or Group

8. Exhibit CAN BE EITHER INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP (MAXIMUM OF 5) AN EXHIBIT IS A VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF YOUR TOPIC EXHIBIT IS TYPICALLY EITHER A PAPER OR WOODEN TRI-FOLD BOARD PICTURES, MAPS, DIAGRAMS DESCRIBE YOUR TOPIC TEXT TO EXPLAIN CONCEPTS– YOU CAN CREATE 500 OF YOUR OWN WORDS AND CAN USE QUOTES FROM OTHERS

9. Paper 1,500-2,500 WORDS (8- 10 PAGES OF TYPED INFORMATION) TYPICALLY A FORMAL PAPER, BUT CAN BE PORTRAYED USING CREATIVE WRITING SUCH AS A FICTIONAL DIARY OR POEM CITATIONS (FOOTNOTES OR ENDNOTES) ARE REQUIRED INDIVIDUAL CATEGORY ONLY- NO GROUP PAPERS ARE PERMITTED

10. Performance INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP (MAXIMUM OF 5 STUDENTS) NO LONGER THAN A 10 MINUTE PERFORMANCE STUDENTS CREATE SCRIPT BASED ON HISTORICAL RESEARCH, LEARN LINES, CREATE THE SET, AND CONSTRUCT COSTUMES.

11. Documentary INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP (MAXIMUM OF 5 STUDENTS) MOVIE MUST BE LESS THAN 10 MINUTES STUDENTS PRODUCE A MINI-MOVIE: NEED TO HAVE TECHNOLOGY SKILLS TO DO THIS CATEGORY. A COMPUTER AT HOME IS REALLY IMPORTANT. YOU WILL ADD SOUND, PICTURES, AND VOICE OVERS

12. Websites INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP CATEGORY (MAXIMUM OF 5) MUST USE THE NHD.WEEBLY WEBSITE ADD TEXT, MOVIES, DOCUMENTS, QUOTES MEDIA (MOVIES) MUST BE LESS THAN 45 SECONDS

13. CONDUCTING RESEARCH Begin with an outline… Ask yourself 10-15 questions that will guide your research. Use note cards (either paper or electronic) to keep up with your information. Make sure you are identifying your source of information so that you can go back to the source later.

14. CONDUCTING RESEARCH Then start READING secondary sources- Get an overview of the circumstances, then move to primary sources.

15. SECONDARY SOURCES Secondary Sources – A source that seeks to explain or interpret an event written by someone such as a historian decades or even centuries after the event. -Books -Articles -Interviews that explain or interpret – the person is talking about an event and was not a participant -Media productions

16. PRIMARY SOURCES Primary Sources – Information created by the event or the process of an event -Archival documents (Government Documents) -Manuscripts and/or diaries -Photographs -Newspapers, magazines, journals if they are written at the time of an event -Personal interviews if the person participated or was an eyewitness

17. RESEARCH Research should be balanced: Type: You should not have just internet sources, or just books. Try to balance your type of sources. Research should be balanced: Quality: You should locate information that you know is accurate from reliable sources. Not everything on the internet is always true! Research should be balanced: Bias: If you read / present information from one side of the argument, you should do the same with the other. Research should be balanced: Primary / Secondary: Try to support your primary source documents with secondary sources and vice versa.

18. RESEARCH These are just some of the websites that contain reliable information: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov http://www.loc.gov http://www.history.com http://www.archives.org http://www.si.edu http://www.pbs.org/ http://www.c-spanclassroom.org/ http://www.teachersdomain.org/special/civil/

19. RESEARCH Our district databases are beneficial to conduct both primary and secondary research: District DatabaseRelevance AP PhotosModern and Historical Primary Source Photos ABC-ClioHistoric American and World History GaleA resource center that searches magazines, newspapers, and reference books. SIRS A general reference database containing thousands of full-text articles that explores social, scientific, health, historic, business, economic, political, and global issues. WorldBookOnline encyclopedia that provides great background information

20. Website Identification Domain endingexample.edu = educational institutionhttp://docsouth.unchttp://docsouth.unc. edu.gov = US government sitehttp://memory.lochttp://memory.loc. gov.org = organization or associationhttp://www.theahahttp://www.theaha. org.com = commercial sitehttp://www.historychannelhttp://www.historychannel. com.museum = museumhttp://nc.historyhttp://nc.history. museum.net = personal or other sitehttp://www.californiahistoryhttp://www.californiahistory. net

21. Showing Results of Research Your project should… Create a strong, interesting, and persuasive thesis statement, then provide information to support that statement. Remember that you are the expert on your topic. Make sure your project is clear and to the point. Read through your information and make sure that you can understand the material. If you can not understand the material, no one else will be able to either. Use primary research and show that these sources have been used - Use quotes, pictures, and headlines from the sources. Use secondary sources help to support the primary sources Make sure materials used are part of the “story” and help prove your thesis. You should not place random pictures throughout your project without knowing how they tell your story.

22. BIBLIOGRAPHY Provide annotations for each source by describing the source and what was learned from it – be specific about the quality of the help, what you learned from the source, and where it was used Choose one type or style for citing sources that your teacher provides for you. Noodletools or Easy Bib are both great online bibliography citation machines.

23. Process Paper Historical papers do not need a process paper All other categories require a process paper The process paper is limited to 500 words. The information presented on the process paper includes: 1.How you chose your topic 2. How you conducted your research 3. How you selected your presentation category and created your project 4. How your project relates to the NHD theme.

24. Criteria for a quality history project Historical Quality (60%)  Historically Accurate  Shows analysis and interpretation  Shows wide research  Uses available primary sources  Research is balanced in relation to various points of view Relation to the Theme (20%) Clarity of Presentation (20%)

25. NHD EXAMPLE PROJECTS http://www.nhd.org/StudentProjectExamples.htm