Mead student wins National History Day competition
Posted by Terri McHugh on Wednesday, June 20th, 2012 at 11:26 am
Aarushi Shah, who will be in eighth grade at Mead Junior High School this year, won the Junior Division at the National History Day Competition last week for her research paper. Shah’s paper,
“All of Africa Will Be Free Before We Can Get a Lousy Cup of Coffee,” is about sit-ins in 1943 to desegregate lunch counters in Chicago.
According to http://www.nationalhistoryday.org, each year more than half a million students participate. Students choose a historical topic related to the theme, conduct research, analyze and interpret their sources, and then draw a conclusion about the significance of their topic. Students can present their work as a research paper, an exhibit, a performance, a documentary or a website.
Five Mead Junior High School students qualified for the National History Day competition June 10-14 at the University of Maryland, in addition to Aarushi.
- Lisa Y. and Shriram C. qualified for their Chicago Fire website.
- Ben C. qualified for his “Sky High” website.
- Lisa M. was a runner up for her research paper “Prohibition and the Economy.” She received a Superior ranking at the state competition.
Mead also qualified eight other projects for the State History Expo on April 21 at DePaul University. Those projects, are as follows:
- Sarah L. received a Superior state ranking for her research paper “Marshall Fields;”
- Marianna P. received a Superior state ranking for her research paper “Click-Photojournalism;”
- Kailyn P., Lisa L. and Natasha T. received a Superior state ranking for their exhibit board “Path for Trees and People;”
- Keshav S., Kshitij V. and Colin F. received a Superior state ranking for their exhibit board “Children’s Television Programming;”
- Akash P. and Mitesh P. received a Superior state ranking for their documentary “Cherry Mine Disaster;”
- Michael K. and Adrian C. received a Superior state ranking for their website “Internment;”
- Nikhil M. and Arun A. received a Superior state ranking for their website “Hull House;” and
- Armaan G. received a Superior state ranking for his historical performance “Frank Lloyd Wright.”
In addition, Mead teacher Cheryl Hinchey received the Patricia Behring History Teacher of the Year Award at the state competition. This award recognizes outstanding National History Day teachers and is given to two teachers in each state (one at the junior level and one at the senior level).
The theme this year was Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History. All magnet and discovery students at Mead students worked from four to six months and competed at Mead’s History Fair on March 1. Professional educators and historians served as the judges.
For a list of the top three finishers for 2012, visit http://www.nhd.org/AwardsWinners.htm.