History Day

Teachers

National History Day and its state affiliate, Washington History Day, provides leading-edge training and curriculum materials to help educators meet and exceed education standards. Annual workshops help educators learn how to adopt National History Day in their classrooms, while also offering strategies that make history education interesting, exciting and fun for students.

For more information, visit the Teachers page.

Students/Parents

National History Day encourages students to become historians by developing research, analysis, presentation and social skills. Working individually or in groups, junior (grades 6-8) and senior (9-12) division students select a topic related to an annual theme. They conduct extensive historical research using primary sources, articles, and books, then distill their research and analysis into a dramatic performance, multimedia documentary, museum exhibit, website, or research paper.

For more information, visit the Students page.

Judges

Judges evaluate entries based on historical quality as well as effectiveness of presentation. History Day judging is a one-time volunteer commitment. It involves four to six hours spent evaluating the result of students' independent historical research and includes a complete orientation session. Groups of two or three judges consider a series of entries in a particular category and provide positive feedback through oral and written evaluation. The top entries chosen by the judges will pass on to the next level of the History Day program.

For more information, visit the Judges page.

Regional Events

Students may choose to compete in regional contests held in February and March, entering their project against others in the same division and category. Regional winners advance to the Washington History Day state contest, held in late April or early May.

For more information about contests, visit the Events page.

State History Day

Students who have competed in a regional contest around the state and placed high enough will then move on to the State contest held in late April or early May.

National History Day

Students who finish in first and second place at State in each category go on to the National contest, held in mid-June at the University of Maryland in College Park.