TASD Middle School Students Advance to State Competition

El’Lanah Black, Addison Grant, Kaelynn Smith, and Savannah Wilder
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In January, College Hill Sixth Grade Academy teacher Brooke Harton started an after-school history club, and the premise was that whoever joined would participate in the National History Day Competition. Students have been meeting after school every Tuesday and Thursday since January 4th.Nine students consistently attended the after school club and competed at the Regional National History Day Competition on March 5th.

The purpose of National History Day is for students to use primary and secondary sources to build a project based around a central theme. “The theme this year is Communication in History, and each student has the option to create a paper, documentary, exhibit, performance, or website,” said Harton. Students had to create annotated bibliographies with their sources and learn how to cite them on their projects. They wrote process papers about how they created their projects – all while creating the projects. Harton explains, “Everything is virtual this year, but the regional competition for Southwest Arkansas was hosted by SAU and Dr. John Schneiderwind from the history department.” Students competed in the 6-8 Junior Division and placed in the documentary and virtual exhibit categories.

Maci Millican, Kiara Gipson-Wright, not pictured is Kiera Gipson-Wright

El’Lanah Black, Addison Grant, Kaelynn Smith, and Savannah Wilder created a documentary using iMovie titled Coded Communication. The documentary focuses on different forms of communication used on the Underground Railroad such as gospels, quilt codes, and coded words to lead slaves to freedom. The students received 1st place in the Junior Documentary category. The documentary link is located below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lv9l6EOX8PdkSwkEE9d32RFDHcaEnjfS/view?usp =sharing

Lillian Fields and Ciara Ford created a virtual exhibit titled Path of Protest: Communication through Refusal. This project focuses on the journey of fifteen year old Claudette Colvin who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus nine months before Rosa Parks. Their project focuses on Claudette’s action, why Rosa was chosen instead to be the face of the protest, and how it sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Civil Rights Act of 1964. They received 1st place in the Junior Exhibit category. To view the virtual exhibit, click on the link below:
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/18gP1294n6OwGrxDI veXMxaEO4Hr7w8OpZuJIzgzrQY/edit?usp=sharing

Ciara Ford and Lillian Fields

Maci Millican, Kiara Gipson-Wright, and Kiera Gipson-Wright created a virtual exhibit titled Stanton Takes a Stand. Harton said, “The main focus of their exhibit is to show how Elizabeth Cady Stanton argued for equality for women using speeches (specifically the Declaration of Sentiments) and how she and Susan B. Anthony essentially helped push the movement along,” commented Harton. “Stanton and Anthony didn’t live to see women get the vote, but without them, who knows where we would be.” They received 2nd place in the Junior Exhibit category. Click the link below to view their board: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1-UkDfSfS9- KnIn3UjhJrdC-7ltWLcUL3TZRGjKkVfh8/edit?usp=sharing

Because the students placed 1st and 2nd in their categories, they have been promoted to the State National History Day Competition. “Our students will be competing against other 6-8 graders from across the state of Arkansas,” Harton said. “We just finished revising projects based off the judges’ notes, and we submitted everything yesterday.”

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