2015 was a great year for Montgomery County’s History Day students! Four of the eight entries from Montgomery County went into the final rounds of judging at the National competition in June. Juliana Lu-Yang and Anna Barth from Montgomery Blair High School won an Outstanding State Entry award with their documentary “From Ones and Zeroes to a Compiled World: The Legend of Grace Hopper,” Sara Romeyn of Bullis School was recognized as a Patricia Behring High School Teacher of the Year, and Ananya Iyer from Eastern Middle School showcased her exhibit on Margaret Thatcher at National History Night Out at the Smithsonian. This year, we at the Montgomery County Historical Society have been working hard to make 2016 History Day an even greater success in Montgomery County!
Montgomery County is a very large and diverse county and plans are underway to make History Day even larger and more inclusive to our students. We took notice that students and teachers are always looking for accessible resources, especially local primary sources, and over the past few months our Education and Outreach Coordinator has been working closely with our Librarian and Archivist to make these materials more readily available, but we aren’t stopping there.
For 2016 we have created a topic sheet in relation to this year’s theme Exploration,
Encounter, Exchange in history which highlights local history topics, such as Dr. Edward Stonestreet and 19th century medicine or Clara Barton, as well as resources within the Historical Society to help students begin their research. Upon the request of Montgomery County Public Schools leaders, we are also digitizing our library and archival resources to make our documents and photographs more accessible to not only History Day students, but to be used in the classroom as well. A special Library and Archives Day will be held at the Historical Society’s Jane C. Sween Library in January to help students learn research methods, choose relevant documents and photos, as well as how to properly cite these resources in their projects. We will also be hosting archive and library training sessions this winter for parents, teachers, and any students who are interested in learning how to use these resources.
If you would like to learn more about Montgomery County History Day please contact Amanda Elliott at AElliott@MontgomeryHistory.org or 301-340-2825
The Montgomery County History Day contest will take place on March 12, 2016 at Richard Montgomery High School.