Nearly 500 young historians representing 34 schools and a dozen districts showcased their original websites, papers, documentaries, performances and exhibits at this year’s National History Day-Orange County competition.
Hosted by OCDE, the event was staged Friday, March 8 and Saturday, March 9 at the department’s Costa Mesa campus, which accommodated a cavernous tent for the occasion. The OCDE Newsroom dropped by on Saturday to document the documentarians, producing the segment above.
[Updated, March 14: The winners in all categories were announced during an awards ceremony on March 13 and have since been posted on the NHD-OC website.]
Every year, more than 500,000 students in grades four through 12 take part in National History Day contests at the local, state and national levels. Participants, working as individuals or in teams, must conduct extensive research on a historical topic before submitting in-depth projects connected to the annual theme. This year’s theme was “Triumph and Tragedy in History.”
The top submissions from Orange County will travel to the state finals in May, and California’s highest-scoring projects will advance to the National History Day Contest at the University of Maryland at College Park in June.