What is Massachusetts History Day?

National History Day is an inter-disciplinary research project for students in grades 6-12 that encourages exploration of local, state, national, and world history.  Each year more than half a million students, encouraged by thousands of teachers nationwide, participate in the NHD contest.  History day teaches students to:

• Conduct in-depth research
• Use primary and secondary sources
• Work with libraries, archives, museums, oral history interviews, and/or historic sites
• Analyze and interpret their findings
  
• Write and present their historical research

Students choose a topic that relates to an annual theme, research that topic, draw conclusions about their topics’ significance in history, and present their research in one of five presentation categories: Research Paper, Exhibit, Documentary, Performance, or Website. Students may then enter their projects into History Day competitions at school, local, state, and national levels. The program culminates in the Kenneth E. Behring National Contest each June held at the University of Maryland at College Park.

In addition to discovering the exciting world of the past, NHD also helps students develop the following attributes that are critical for future success:

• critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• research and reading skills
• oral and written communication and presentation skills
• self esteem and confidence
• a sense of responsibility for, and involvement in, the democratic process

More than 5 million students have gone on to careers in business, law, medicine, education and countless other disciplines where they are putting into practice what they learned through NHD.