Introduction
Each year more than half a million students participate in the National History Day Contest. Students choose a historical topic related to the annual theme, and then conduct primary and secondary research. You will look through libraries, archives and museums, conduct oral history interviews, and visit historic sites. After you have analyzed and interpreted your sources, and have drawn a conclusion about the significance of your topic, you will then be able to present your work in one of five ways: as a paper, an exhibit, a performance, a documentary, or a website.
Read the Rules
Before you begin work on an entry for competition, you, your teacher, and your parents should carefully read the rules.NHDRuleBook2021Digital_0.pdf
The LoneStar Montgomery History Day contest is a recognized regional affiliate of the National History Day contest and upholds the rules of the National History Day rulebook.
Understand the Theme
Each year NHD selects a theme for the contest. Although you may select a topic on any aspect of local, regional, national, or world history, your project’s research and conclusions must relate clearly to the annual theme. Be careful to limit the scope of your topic to focus on an issue that can be explained and interpreted within the category limits of size and time.
The theme changes each year so if you do NHD every year, you will not repeat a theme. The themes are chosen to be 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 your topic you need to ask questions about time, place and context, cause and effect, change over time, and impact and significance. You must consider not only when and where events happened, but also why they occurred and what factors contributed to their development.
2024 Theme Book
Choose a Topic
Topics for research are everywhere! Think about a time in history or individuals or events that are interesting to you. Start a list.
- Read books, newspapers or other sources of information and add to your list.
- Talk with relatives, neighbors, or people you know who have lived through a particular time in history that interests you and add more ideas.
- Keep thinking, reading and talking to people until you have many ideas that are interesting.
Effective NHD entries not only describe an event or a development, but they also analyze and place it in its historical context. To help you draw conclusions about your topic’s significance in history, ask yourself the following questions:
- How was my topic significant in history in relation to the NHD theme?
- How did my topic develop over time?
- How did my topic influence history?
- How did the events and atmosphere (social, economic, political, and cultural aspects) of my topic’s time period influence my topic in history?
- Why is my topic important?
Now go back through the list and circle the ideas that connect with the theme. From the ideas that you circled, select one to begin your research. Keep your list because you might need it again. Selecting a National History Day Contest topic is a process of gradually narrowing down the area of history (period or event) that interests you to a manageable subject.
Divisions
The NHD competition has two divisions based on school grade.
- Junior Division — grades 6, 7, and 8
- Senior Division — grades 9, 10, 11, and 12
Choose a Category
You may enter one of nine categories:
- paper (individual only)
- individual exhibit
- group exhibit
- individual performance
- group performance
- individual documentary
- group documentary
- individual website
- group website
Each category in each division is judged separately. Groups may include two to five students. Group participants do not have to be in the same grade to compete together, but they must be in the same division.
Elementary
Texas elementary students (grades 4th and 5th) can compete in the poster contest as an introduction to the National History Day process. Please be familiar with the rule book.
About History Day
What is LoneStar Montgomery History Day?
The LoneStar Montgomery History Day is one step on the road to NATIONAL HISTORY DAY® competition. After entering their local school history fair, winning students from several school districts north of Houston may advance to the LONESTAR MONTGOMERY REGIONAL HISTORY DAY at the campus of LoneStar Montgomery College. Those winners will compete for advancement to Texas History Day in Austin, sponsored by the Texas State Historical Association. State winners will then travel to the NATIONAL HISTORY DAY® competition at the University of Maryland, just outside our nation’s capital!
What is Texas History Day?
Each year thousands of students, encouraged by teachers and parents statewide, participate in the National History Day program in Texas. Texas History Day, an affiliate of NHD and is a highly regarded academic program for 6th through 12th grade students. Each year more than 65,000 Texas students join more than 500,000 students across the country for National History Day!
Texas History Day provides a framework for successful student projects. Each student bases their project on the same annual theme and rule book. Students choose historical topics related to a theme and conduct extensive primary and secondary research at libraries, archives, museums, historic sites, and more. Projects are not limited to any particular time period or geographic area. After analyzing and interpreting their source material, create a plan to present their findings to the peers and teachers before moving on to regional, state, and possibly national contests. Students can create and present original research papers, exhibits, performances, websites, and documentaries.
The student projects may be entered into competitions in the spring at one of our regional contests across Texas. Winners from each regional competition will advance to the state contest in Austin. Students who place first or second at our state contest advance to the National Contest held each June held at the University of Maryland at College Park.
For more info, visit: TSHA: Texas History Day
What is National History Day?
NATIONAL HISTORY DAY ® (NHD) is a year-long, non-profit education program dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of history. This project-based program helps students develop critical thinking and research skills, and provides an excellent opportunity to master the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS.)
Students participating in the NHD contest choose their own topics of study related to an annual theme, conduct extensive research, and choose the best method for displaying their findings. Projects can be done individually or as a group. A group consists of from two to five students. Project categories include: historical paper (individuals only), exhibit, documentary, performance and interpretive website. The junior division is for grades 6-8 and the senior division is for grades 9-12.
National History Day (NHD) is an opportunity for teachers and students to engage in real historical research. NHD is not a predetermined by-the-book program but an innovative curriculum framework in which students learn history by selecting topics of interest and launching into a year-long research project. The purpose of NHD is to improve the teaching and learning of history in middle and high schools. NHD is a meaningful way for students to study historical issues, ideas, people and events by engaging in historical research. When studying history through historical research, students and teachers practice critical inquiry: asking questions of significance, time and place. Through careful questioning, history students become immersed in a detective story too engaging to stop reading.
Each year National History Day uses a theme to provide a lens through which students can examine history. The annual theme frames the research for both students and teachers. The theme is intentionally broad enough that students can select topics from any place (local, national or world) and any time period in history. Once students choose their topics, they investigate historical context, historical significance, and the topic’s relationship to the theme by conducting research in libraries, archives and museums, through oral history interviews, and by visiting historic sites.
About History Day
The Lone Star Montgomery Regional History Day will be held on the campus of Livingston Junior High School. The address is
1801 U.S. Highway 59 Loop North
Livingston, TX 77351
When is it?
Both the Junior and Senior divisions of the state competition, Texas History Day, will be in Austin on April, 20, 2024 and the National History Day® competition will be in early June at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland.
What to expect during the Contest
The contest will include a time for exhibit set up, judging, a break for lunch, and an award ceremony. Check back as the contest date approaches for a finalized schedule.
How are entries judged?
Students select a topic related to the annual theme. Judges prefer a topic that is unique or different, and can be well researched. The quality and quantity of sources cited in the bibliography are important. The use of primary sources is a necessary element of the research. All rules and guidelines are mandated by NHD.
Failure to adhere to the guidelines will be considered by the judges when ranking the entries. Sample judging forms can be found on the NHD website as well. Regardless of which category a student enters, the project will be evaluated on the basis of historical quality, clarity of presentation, adherence to theme, and rules compliance. Students may make changes according to the judges’ comments before advancing to the next level of competition.
How do I enter?
Students must have participated in a local school or homeschool fair in order to qualify for the Regional Fair. Each individual school is responsible for setting a date for their local competition, but it typically occurs approximately one month before the regional fair.
Teachers, if you are interested in having your students participate and need more information, please contact the Regional Coordinator early in the semester! Additional resources can be provided to assist your students.
The local schools are responsible for selecting the final entries to compete at the regional fair. Each school is limited to three (3) entries PER CATEGORY per division.
All registration will be done online. Teachers or sponsors must enter their students' names into the system before the students can register.
An entry fee of $15 PER STUDENT is required. Please send one check per school, with a list of all students covered by the check. Checks should be made out to “Texas State Historical Association” and MUST BE POSTMARKED by February 6, 2024.
Please mail entry fees to:
Texas State Historical Association
Attn: Texas History Day, LoneStar Montgomery Region
3001 Lake Austin Blvd. Ste. 3.116
Austin, TX 78703
Additional Resources
Jr. Division Teacher Resources
Sr. Division Teacher Resources-Part 1
Sr. Division Teacher Resources-Part 2
How to have a successful project
Sponsors & Special Awards
National History Day®
NHD Contest Rule Book
For More Information
Contact:
Lone Star Montgomery Steering Committee
Email: lonestarmontgomery.hd@gmail.com
How are entries judged?
Students select a topic related to the annual theme. Judges prefer a topic that is unique or different, and can be well researched. The quality and quantity of sources cited in the bibliography are important. The use of primary sources is a necessary element of the research. All rules and guidelines are mandated by NHD. The guidelines for each category of project can be found in the contest rule book, click below
NHDRuleBook2021Digital_0.pdf
Failure to adhere to the guidelines will be considered by the judges when ranking the entries. Sample judging forms can be found on the NHD website as well. Regardless of which category a student enters, the project will be evaluated on the basis of historical quality, clarity of presentation, adherence to theme, and rules compliance. Students may make changes according to the judges’ comments before advancing to the next level of competition.
Elementary posters will be judged using a rubric as well.