Essex, Missouri - The Richland junior high and high school students have been busy working on their History Day projects for the last couple of weeks but there is a slight delay on the unveiling of the winners of this year’s competition due to an early release at the school today.
This year’s History Day theme is “Turning Points in History: People, Ideas, and Events”. There have been many great projects picked by the students that have shown a quick preview of their hard work before the Open House, which was scheduled for tonight before the bad weather set in. This year’s topic brought a lot of new participants and ideas to the table, with boards and papers ranging from The Assassination to John F. Kennedy to the revelation of John Lennon and The Beatles.
With History Day being around for nearly forty years, there are millions of students that participate in it across the nation. Many United States Presidents and legislatures have recognized this program and annual event multiple times. Richland is proud to be a part of it and have been participating in their school wide program for nearly a decade.
Open House has been moved from February 21st to tomorrow, Friday, February 22nd. The students’ projects will be judged by History Day judges that will be brought in from different areas and schools and students in both the Junior and Senior Divisions will be awarded with trophies from third to first place. The gym will be arranged by category: Individual Exhibit, Group Exhibit, Individual Historical Research Paper, or Group Historical Research Paper. Each category will be divided up by the Junior Division (6th through 8th grade) and the Senior Division (9th through 12th grade).
The winners of each category and both divisions will be announced tomorrow night and the students will receive their grades for their History classes at a later date. This year’s competition has been both exciting and stressful, just like any school project this large, but the participants have put a lot of effort into their work and are excited for their friends and family to see.
The winners of the local Richland competition will be taken to Cape Girardeau for the SEMO National History Day District Competition, which will take place on March 15th. All students who receive an award at the local level will have the option to advance to Districts. Richland has had great success at the District and State competitions and has sent multiple students to the National History Day Competition in Washington DC within the last couple of years.
