National History Day is not just a day, but every day! The National History Day program is a year-long education program that culminates in a national contest every June. National History Day: Nebraska is sponsored by Humanities Nebraska and Nebraska Wesleyan University.
For more than twenty-five years the National History Day program has promoted systemic educational reform related to the teaching and learning of history in America’s schools. The combination of creativity and scholarship built into the NHD program anticipated current educational reforms, making National History Day a leading model of performance-based learning.
NHD is a year-long education program that engages students in grades 6-12 in the process of discovery and interpretation of historical topics. Students produce dramatic performances, imaginative exhibits, multimedia documentaries, interactive web sites, and research papers based on research related to an annual theme. These projects are then evaluated at local, state, and national competitions.
2021 Contest Theme
Communication in History: The Key to Understanding
During the 2020-2021 school year, National History Day invited students to research topics related to the theme “Breaking Barriers in History.” As is the case each year, the theme is broad enough to encourage investigation of topics ranging from local history to world history, and from ancient time to the recent past. To understand the historical importance of their topics students ask questions about time, place and context; cause and effect; change over time; and impact and significance. Students must consider not only when and where events happened, but also why they occurred and what factors contributed to their development. Description of the topic must also include an analysis of information and conclusions about how the topic influenced and was influenced by people, ideas or events.
The Nebraska State Contest will be held online April 23-25, 2021.
National History Day: Nebraska was made available to Nebraska students with the help of:
