 History Day Project Options Balancing your talents/interests with the research information you have found

Some General Reminders  Primary research is what separates good projects from great projects. If all of your primary research is web-based, it will be hard for you to be able to connect with and understand your topic at the “expert” level.  PLEASE CONTINUE TO PURSUE INTERVIEWS, EVEN IF YOU ALREADY HAVE CONDUCTED ONE. CAST A WIDE NET AND BE PERSISTENT!  Always, always, always write a thank you note to the person you interviewed

Some General Reminders cont.  You may continue researching, revising your thesis statement, revising your supporting paragraphs, changing a supporting paragraph, etc. up until the project is due.  So, as you work on putting your project together, you should simultaneously be continuing to build upon your research and your understanding of your topic’s significance in history.

Some General Reminders cont. LEADERSHIP & LEGACY!  THE THEME, THE THEME, THE THEME – should be integrated all throughout your project. All of your supporting points should be tied back to the theme in your project. LEADERSHIP & LEGACY!  DATES & PLACES, DATES & PLACES – should be integrated all throughout your project. This is a Historical Research Project!

Project Options  Paper – individual  Exhibit – group or individual  Documentary – group or individual  Performance – group or individual  Web Site – group or individual

Project Options – Research Paper  Students who choose a research paper as their project should:  Make sure to work towards 2,500 words (more than doubling the paper you recently turned in)  Have no desire to present their research findings in a visually artistic or technological manner  Have incredibly strong analytical writing skills  Be able to expertly use parenthetical citations and direct quotations to support reasoning  Have scored well on the research paper everyone had to turn in

Project Options – Exhibits  Students who choose an exhibit as their project should:  Have a large amount of visual images that can be used to communicate research findings  Go beyond a standard 3-panel display board  Be able to chronologically and visually represent research information  Be comfortable with the 500-word maximum  Follow the rules for the exhibit as stated in the packet

Project Options – Documentary  Students who choose a documentary as their project should:  Have a variety of primary source film footage and primary source still images that can be included (NO CLIP ART ALLOWED)  Have first-hand interview footage that can be included  Have some movie-making experience  Be comfortable with technology  Make a film that is close to the 10-minute maximum time limit

Project Options – Performance  Students who choose a Performance as their project should:  Be comfortable performing in front of an audience  Be able to memorize up to 10 minutes of lines  Show in-depth research and analysis through the performance  Be able to put an effective, yet simple costume together

Project Options – Web Site  Students who choose a web site as their project should:  Have the goal of making the website interactive, using a wide variety of audio, video, and graphic files (NO CLIP ART)  Include many links within the website  NOT include ANY links that take the user to outside links  Multi-media clips cannot go beyond 4 minutes (audio, video, or both)  Adhere to the 1,200 word limit  Annotated Works Cited must be part of the website  Your website must be created through nhd.org.  Click on Contests, Create an Entry, and Web Site and follow the directions on the site.

Sample Projects  You can visit NHD.org to view sample projects.  Feel free to me over Winter Break if you have any questions about putting your project together.