Jim Grant / Nevada AppealAs classmate Ashra Taslima, left, looks on, Carson High School student Tyler Torres, right, ponders a question from a judge at the school’s History Day competition on Tuesday. The two students worked together on a Senior Division team exhibit titled “Palestine: Where the Sun Never Rose Again.”
History took over the technology building at Carson High School on Tuesday for the districtâs first History Day competition.With a theme of âTurning Points in History: People, Events and Ideas,â the 47 entries by 100 students varied in topics from âHatshepsut: The First Woman Pharaohâ to âCreation of the Credit Card.âPresentation methods also varied. Students chose from four presentation platforms: website, documentary, exhibit or historical paper.âThe students are doing an outstanding job our first year,â said Nicole Fagundes, whose honors world history students participated in the competition. Although itâs the schoolâs first, National World History Day competitions began in 1980.Margaret Duvallâs and Rebecca Motleyâs exhibit âRadio: The Gateway to Modern Democracyâ was inspired by the events of the Arab Spring and the way protesters used social media to coordinate activities. However, the 2011 events led to the ouster of several Middle Eastern dictators were too recent to have a role in the competition.âWe began tracing the media back to radio,â Motley said, adding that they found a similar explosive change toward democratic governments that began more than a century ago.The team traced the history of radio from its invention in 1895 by Guglielmo Marconi to its use by Chinaâs Mao Zedong. Tyler Torres and Ashra Taslima looked at a Middle Eastern issue more directly with their exhibit âPalestine: Where the Sun Never Rose Again.ââI heard a lot about this in class watching CNN Student News (broadcasts),â Torres said. âThereâs a lot going on in Israel.âWhat stood out in their research was the complexity of the issues, Torres said. Even the best solutions have major drawbacks.Both exhibit teams made personal connections by talking to people with experience. Duvall interviewed her grandmother, who, as a child, heard one of the first radio broadcasts â from New York to Seattle. Taslima talked to a man who lived in Israel in 1948.Other students chose to present their history projects using a modern tool: computers.Amber Seifert, Alexis Lequerica and Sumner Steel developed a website featuring âCatherine the Great and the Integration of Western Ideas to Russia.âThe three students are taking computer classes, which enabled them to work on their project in class as well as at home. âIt was an interesting topic to do on computer instead of on a board,â Legerica said.âCatherine the Great was a powerful female figure,â Seifert said. âShe did a lot for Russia when she was ruling,â Steel said.Among the surprises they found as they delved into the topic was how Catherine the Great came to power.âCatherine and her husbandâs mother overthrew her husband (the czar),â Seifert said. âThey were all in on the (murder) plot.âMaking their presentation to the judges was ânerve-wracking at firstâ Seifert said. But they all agreed that the judges were nice and helpful as well, even offering suggestions on building a website.Fagundes said the 15 volunteer judges came from the State Archives, State Museum, Truckee Meadows Community College and Teaching American History Project, State Department of Education, community volunteers and teachers. They reviewed the studentsâ project itself, listened to the presentation, reviewed the studentsâ papers describing their processes, and asking questions that demonstrated the studentsâ mastery of their chosen topics.The top 15 projects, which will be announced Friday, qualify to move on to the state competition March 30 at the University of Nevada, Reno, and the top state projects move on to the National History Day competition in June in Maryland.