200-plus students to attend National History Day at UW-Green Bay

GREEN BAY – The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay will host the Northeastern Wisconsin Region’s National History Day competition Saturday, March 5, marking the 14th consecutive year the event will be held on the UW-Green Bay campus.

The competition will welcome more than 200 students, representing 12 schools from throughout the region, with more than 110 projects. Students come from public and private schools in an eight-county area. Brown, Oconto and Outagamie counties will be represented during the National History Day event.

In keeping with this year’s theme, “Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History,” project topics include the Apollo 11 moon landing, discovery of the Titanic, invention of gunpowder, Alexander the Great, development of television, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Olympic athlete Jesse Owens, and many others. Some topics are about local history, among them, the Peshtigo Fire, French Explorer Jean Nicolet, founder of the Green Bay-De Pere Antiquarian Society, Jesse Buchanan, and the Green Bay Packers.

“We are proud to have UW-Green Bay serve as host for this exciting academic competition,” said UW-Green Bay’s Deb Anderson, coordinator for the Northeastern Wisconsin region. “National History Day provides students of all abilities and interests an opportunity to learn about a topic of their choosing and present it in a creative way. I am impressed by the depth and breadth demonstrated by the students…in their topic selection, research, and final projects. After a research field trip to the UW-Green Bay Archives, one student remarked to his teacher, ‘Best day ever! I have never done anything this cool in school before.’ We are excited to be part of creating a strong passion for history,” Anderson said.

Students can enter the National History Day competition in a variety of categories, including historical papers, exhibit displays, documentaries, performances and websites. They are required to use primary sources for projects, which often include interviews with individuals who have lived history.

The 2016 National History Day competition will be held in the University Union and Mary Ann Cofrin Hall at UW-Green Bay, 2420 Nicolet Drive. It is free and open to the public.

The all-day event begins with an opening ceremony at 9 a.m., with judging taking place from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Awards will be presented in the University Theatre at 3 p.m. Winners from the regional competition will move on to the April 23 state contest, and may have the opportunity to compete at the national competition in Washington, D.C. in June. On an annual basis, National History Day serves more than 600,000 students in the U.S. states and territories.

In addition to students, families, educators and friends, the regional National History Day competition relies on 80 volunteers, including UW-Green Bay students, faculty, alumni and community members, to keep it running smoothly, Anderson said.

Its financial sponsors are the Brown County Historical Society, the Green Bay-De Pere Antiquarian Society, the League of Women Voters, the Fox Wisconsin Heritage Parkway, the Historic Allouez Society, and the De Pere Historical Society.

For more information contact Deb Anderson at UW Green Bay Archives at (920) 465-2539; or andersod@uwgb.edu.

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