Region 15 Students Win Awards at CT History Day Contest

From Pomperaug Regional School District 15: 40 Students representing Memorial Middle School, Rochambeau Middle School and Pomperaug High School participated in the Connecticut History Day Contest held on April 29th, 2017 at Central Connecticut State University.

The Connecticut History Day Contest is part of the National History Day program for students in grades 6-12 that encourages exploration of local, state, national, and world history. To participate, students select a historical topic related to a theme and conduct extensive research using libraries, archives, museums, and oral history interviews.

This year’s theme was “Taking a Stand in History.” Using their research, students analyze and interpret their findings, draw conclusions about their topic's significance in history, and create final projects that demonstrate their work. They present their research in one of five ways: write a paper, do a theatrical performance, design a website, make a short documentary or create an exhibit. Professional historians and educators evaluate the students’ final projects in a series of competitions at the regional, state (Connecticut History Day Contest), and national (National History Day Contest) levels in 15 categories and two divisions, Junior (Grades 6-8) and Senior (Grades 9-12). The top three projects in each category at the regional level advance to Connecticut History Day and the top two projects at Connecticut History Day advance to the National History Day Contest.

45 projects from Region 15 students were entered in competition at the regional level, and 14 projects advanced to the Connecticut History Day competition.

At the Connecticut History Day Competition Kaella Palladino, Emma Williams, and Caroline Parrott from Memorial Middle School won 2nd place in the Junior Group Exhibit category for their project titled, “Ruby Bridges: A Girl Who Took a Stand.” They will now advance to the National History Day Competition at the University of Maryland in June.

The following students from Rochambeau Middle School finished in 3rd place at the state competition and are alternates for the national competition:

Joelle Beck and Triloshan Thillaikumaran in the category Junior Group Website, for their project titled, “Science and Religion: Galileo Taking a Stand Against the Church,” and Ashley Carter in the Junior Individual Exhibit category for her project titled, “Tracey Thurman- Pioneer Against Domestic Violence.”

At the Connecticut History Day Contest awards are given in specialty categories. David Roper, Griffin Wolf, Emmett Reilly, and William Miller from Pomperaug High School were awarded Outstanding Entry Related to Taking a Stand in Connecticut History, sponsored by the Archives & Collections of the UCONN Library, for their project titled: The Controversy of Southbury vs. the Bund: Southbury’s Stand Up to Hitler.

Sharon Wlodarczyk, a special education paraprofessional at Memorial Middle School, volunteers as the National History Day Advisor for Region 15. “Participating students bring high-level work to this contest and shine in their ability to showcase their critical thinking skills. Our Region 15 students are consistently recognized at the Connecticut History Day Contest for their projects. I am proud of all the students’ research and interest in history,” said Wlodarczyk.

Connecticut History Day is one of 57 affiliate programs of National History Day (NHD)®. It is led by the Connecticut Public Affairs Network (CPAN) with support from the Connecticut State Department of Education, Connecticut Council for the Social Studies, the Connecticut League of History Organizations, Connecticut Explored Magazine, and ConnecticutHistory.org.

Photo courtesy of Region 15 ((L-R): Emma Williams, Kaella Palladino, and Caroline Parrott, 8th graders from Memorial Middle School won 2nd place in the Junior Group Exhibit category at the Connecticut State History competition for their project titled, “Ruby Bridges: A Girl Who Took a Stand.” They will be participating in the National History Day Competition at the University of Maryland in June.)