Ten middle and high school students from the North Country won top prizes at North Country History Day on Saturday, March 12th, at Ticonderoga’s Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center. These students will advance to compete at New York State History Day in Cooperstown on April 29th.
“It’s really gratifying to see students in junior high and high school excited about history,” said Rich Strum, Fort Ticonderoga’s Director of Education and North Country Regional Coordinator for New York State History Day.
“These students have invested a great deal of time in historical research and pulling together compelling projects about debate and diplomacy in history. It’s great to see their creativity unleashed in this way.”
“Debate and Diplomacy: Successes, Failures, Consequences” is the 2011 theme for National History Day.
Champlain National Bank helped support the North Country History Day Regional Contest, a regional program coordinated by Fort Ticonderoga.
Winners in the North Country Region include:
· Jonathan Brassard, Cole Gaddor, Kyle Gifaldi, Megan Maloy, and Dylan Scozzafava, from Moriah Central School, took first place in the Senior Group Website category with their website “The Great Debate.”
· Nathan Wilhelm, from Edison Home School, took first place in the Junior Individual Website category with his website “The Panama Canal: A Land Divided / A World United.”
· Emily Powers and Mackenzie Strum, from Ticonderoga Middle School, took first place in the Junior Group Exhibit category with their exhibit “Who Really Discovered DNA?”
· Makayla Holt and Amanda Hurlburt, from St. Mary’s School, Ticonderoga, took second place in the Junior Group Exhibit category with their exhibit “The Salem Witchcraft Trials.”
A report released earlier this month by the American Association for State and Local History found that student participation in the National History Day program “had a marked impact on their knowledge of history.” The report found that the program instilled an interest in both historical events and issues, taught students how to dig deeper into historical issues, and motivated them to ask questions and analyze historical evidence.
National History Day is the nation’s leading program for history education in the schools. The program annually engages 2 million people in 48 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam. Students research history topics of their choice related to an annual theme and create exhibits, documentaries, performances, research papers, and website designs. They may enter in competition at the regional, state, and national level. Participants include students in grades 6-8 in the Junior Division and grades 9-12 in the Senior Division. National History Day also provides educational services to students and teachers, including a summer internship program, curricular materials, internet resources, and annual teacher workshops and training institutes. Fort Ticonderoga hosts teacher workshops about History Day each fall in the North Country and Regional Coordinator Rich Strum is available to meet with teachers at their schools to introduce the program.
Teachers and students from Clinton, Essex, Franklin, and Warren counties interested in participating in North Country History Day during the 2011-12 school year should contact Rich Strum, North Country Regional Coordinator for New York State History Day, at rstrum@fort-ticonderoga.org or at (518) 585-6370.
Fort Ticonderoga is America’s Fort. Located in the Adirondacks in historic Ticonderoga, New York on Lake Champlain and overlooking the Green Mountains of Vermont, Fort Ticonderoga is a private not-for-profit historic site that ensures that present and future generations learn from the struggles, sacrifices, and victories that shaped North America and changed world history. With nearly 2000 acres of exquisite landscape it tells the comprehensive story of how the blood spilled to create an empire in the French & Indian War resulted in the struggle for liberty and America’s independence a generation later.
Fort Ticonderoga offers programs, tours, demonstrations and exhibits each day from 9:30am-5:00pm, May 20- Oct. 20. The 2011 season will feature The Art of War: Ticonderoga as Experienced through the Eyes of America’s Great Artists exhibit highlighting the Fort’s extensive art collection by some of America’s greatest artists. A full schedule and information on events can be found at www.FortTiconderoga.org https://mail.fortticonderoga.org/exchweb/bin/redir.aspURL=http://www.fort-ticonderoga.org/. Fort Ticonderoga is located at 100 Fort Ti Road in Ticonderoga, New York on the shores of Lake Champlain.
