HF-L Middle School students at the regional Day of History competition gather around this sign at Alfred University. Photo provided by Zachary Clarry
After almost 20 Honeoye Falls-Lima Middle School students showcased their Day of History projects at the regional Day of History Competition at Alfred University in March, 11 of the students (four projects) earned the right to explain what they learned about the pivotal moments, movements and figures at the center of their projects that they had worked on through months of research.
The Middle School eighth-grade students begin work on their Day of History research project in November. An annual event, the National History Day competition features a theme that the projects have to connect to and this year’s theme was Revolution, Reaction, Reform. Students investigate a historical topic of their choosing around this theme and craft an argument and share their findings at the Middle School History Expo in January in one of several formats: group performance, group video documentary, individual video documentary, group website or group exhibit. From there, some students decide to enter their projects at the regional competition.
Middle School students and their projects at the regional competition were Willa Jones, Stella Schaefer, Bea Corey and Kate Lighthouse with their project Human Experimentation during the Cold War (Group Performance), Megan Charles, Molly Zittel and Bell Grethel with their project Women in the Workforce During World War II: Rise of the Rosies about Rosie the Riveter (Group Performance), Cailyn Mannigan and Violet Lewis with their project Alcatraz: Crime, Protest, Revolution (group video documentary), Jackson Hawks, Luke McClean and Caden Hassett with their project The Manhattan Project (group video documentary), Hannah Stein with the project Creation of the CIA (individual video documentary), Linneaus Pierce, Evan Khona and Joey Kingsley with their project The Fall of Communism (group website) and Jaiden Young and Abby Wheelock with their project The Statue of Liberty: A Legacy of Freedom (group exhibit).
The students whose projects went on to the New York State Competition at SUNY Oneonta were the group of Corey, Jones, Lighthouse and Schaefer; the group of Khona, Kingsley and Pierce; the duo of Lewis and Mannigan and the duo of Wheelock and Young.
