Maryland Students Earn History Day Recognition
Sixty-Three Students Compete; Three Win National Awards
(College Park) – Nearly 3,000 students representing schools from throughout the United States, surrounding territories, and countries around the world gathered at the University of Maryland, College Park from June 12–16 to compete in the 2016 Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Competition. Maryland Humanities, the home of History Day in Maryland, is pleased to announce that at the culminating awards ceremony on June 16 three Maryland History Day students received top awards. Sixty-three exceptional students from Maryland participated in the competition.
Megan Lim of Accokeek Academy in Prince George’s County was honored with a silver medal in the Junior Individual Website category for her project “Alfred Russel Wallace: Eight Extraordinary Years in the Malay Archipelago.” Parker Nickels of Northern Middle School in Calvert County was honored with the bronze medal in the Junior Individual Exhibit category for his project “Brainstorm! William James – Pioneer of the Mental Frontier.” Brian Holt of Huntingtown High School in Calvert County was honored with the U.S. Constitution Award, sponsored by the National Archives and Records Administration, for his senior individual website project, “The Iran-Contra Affair: Patriotism or Politics?” The full list of Maryland student and teacher honorees is below.
The National History Day program allows students to explore an annual theme through research using primary and secondary sources, and to create a final product to display their work. The 2016 competition encouraged students to contemplate “Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History” and select a project in one of the following five categories: exhibit, performance, website, paper, or documentary. Maryland students competed in school and county competitions as well as the statewide contest Maryland History Day, which is coordinated by Maryland Humanities, before advancing to the national competition in College Park.
2016 NATIONAL HISTORY DAY HONOREES FROM MARYLAND
SILVER MEDALIST, SECOND PLACE
Student: Megan Lim
Category: Junior Individual Website
Topic: Alfred Russel Wallace: Eight Extraordinary Years in the Malay Archipelago
School: Accokeek Academy
County: Prince George’s County
Teacher: Arun Puracken
BRONZE MEDALIST, THIRD PLACE
Student: Parker Nickels
Category: Junior Individual Exhibit
Topic: Brainstorm! William James – Pioneer of the Mental Frontier
School: Northern Middle School
County: Calvert County
Teacher: Carli Martus
OUTSTANDING STATE ENTRY AWARD – JUNIOR DIVISION
Students: Christopher Pondoc, Jamie Roan, Sydney Robinson, Nikolas Struntz, Hannah Whang
Category: Junior Group Website
Topic: Henrietta Lacks’s Immortal Cells: The Encounter, Exploration, and Exchange That Revolutionized Medicine
School: West Frederick Middle School
County: Frederick County
Teacher: Amy Howser
OUTSTANDING STATE ENTRY AWARD – SENIOR DIVISION
Student: Matthew Blum
Category: Senior Individual Documentary
Topic: Unveiling Decades of Deception: The Tobacco Industry’s Encounter with Congress
School: Howard High School
County: Howard County
Teacher: Mary Curtin
SPECIAL PRIZE – U.S. CONSTITUTION AWARD, sponsored by the National Archives and Records Administration
Student: Brian Holt
Category: Senior Individual Website
Topic: The Iran-Contra Affair: Patriotism or Politics?
School: Huntingtown High School
County: Calvert County
Teacher: Jonathan Moreland
SELECTED TO DISPLAY PROJECT AT THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION’S NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY
Student: Barth Frankenberry
Category: Senior Individual Exhibit
Topic: The Titanic: Sinking the Unsinkable
School: Allegany High School
County: Allegany County
Teacher: Kimberly Sloane
SELECTED TO REPRESENT MARYLAND AT NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES “BREAKFAST ON THE HILL”
Student: Paris Smalley
Category: Junior Individual Documentary
Topic: Walter Reed and the Exploration of Yellow Fever
School: Walker Mill Middle School
County: Prince George’s County
Teacher: Jeffrey Lloyd
FINALISTS
Student: Olivia Bartholomew
Category: Senior Individual Website
Title: Encounters That Cured the World: Exploring Methods to Create the Polio Vaccine
School: Bullis School
County: Montgomery County
Teacher: Lisa Vardi
Students: Ana Elhom, Julia Lowenthal
Category: Senior Group Exhibit
Topic: AIDS: Encountering the Unknown
School: Bullis School
County: Montgomery County
Teacher: Patty Topliffe
Student: Elsa Sellmeyer
Category: Senior Paper
Title: ’I shall not keep in my bedroom several weeks bodies taken from graves’: Anatomical Exploration, Andreas Vesalius, and the Impact of De Humani Corporis Fabrica on the Trajectory of Medicine
School: Homeschool
County: Montgomery County
Teacher: Sarah Stecher
TEACHER AWARDS
PATRICIA BEHRING HIGH SCHOOL MARYLAND HISTORY DAY TEACHER OF THE YEAR:
Kimberly Sloane, Allegany High School, Allegany County
PATRICIA BEHRING MIDDLE SCHOOL MARYLAND HISTORY DAY TEACHER OF THE YEAR:
Christina Doepel, Greenbelt Middle School, Prince George’s County
The full list of Maryland honorees is also available online at https://www.mdhumanities.org/programs/maryland-history-day/national-history-day-winners/.
Maryland Humanities is a statewide, educational nonprofit organization that creates and supports educational experiences in the humanities that inspire all Marylanders to embrace lifelong learning, exchange ideas openly, and enrich their communities. For more information, visit mdhumanities.org. Maryland Humanities is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the State of Maryland, and the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, creator of the Baker Artist Awards.