Judges Needed for Regional History Day Contest

CALLING ALL FRIENDS OF HISTORY EDUCATION Your help is needed in evaluating historical research projects at your community’s regional-level division of the National History Day competition! Students from your region will be competing on Saturday, March 15, 2014 to advance to the state-level competition and we need judges to help make this happen. Our ideal judges are history professionals and other adults who believe in the importance of learning about the past, but most importantly, judges must be ready to listen and provide fair, helpful evaluations on all student work. CENTRAL WASHINGTON REGIONAL CONTEST Date: Saturday, March 15, 2014 Start Time: 8:30 a.m. End Time: Between noon and 2:00 p.m. Location: West Valley Junior High 7505 Zier Road Yakima, WA 98908 If you are available to judge or have any questions about the contest, please contact Regional Coordinator Matt Norling at norlingm@wvsd208.org or (509) 972-5841.  To complete your judging registration, Matt will need to know your name, E-mail address, phone number, and if you have a preference for what type of entry you will be evaluating. Or, if you wish to register yourself for any Washington History Day contest, please visit http://wa.nhd.org/ud/templates/register.php If you live elsewhere, check out one of Washington’s other History Day contests! NATIONAL HISTORY DAY COMPETITION National History Day is a nationwide competition designed to cultivate historical research skills, develop an appreciation for the past, and set the intellectual foundation for future academic and professional endeavors in students grades six through 12. Through their research, students must be able to not only describe their topic, but also to place it within its historical context and to draw conclusions about its historical significance. The students’ research and analytical efforts are then brought to life in the form of a historical research project. Students may choose to create a museum exhibit, a short documentary film, a historical performance, a research paper, or a website. Judges are brought in to evaluate the projects—at which point students are interviewed and given the chance to defend their work—and winning projects advance to the next level of the contest. While not every student leaves with a prize, participating in National History Day strives to send all students home having developed confidence in their ability to learn and share what they know, as well as achieved broader perspective on the relevance of history today.