In December of 2021, 8th graders participated in the History Day Contest. The theme for this year was Debate and Diplomacy.

This event has since concluded, so here are some details of the contest:

• There were 133 projects in many different categories. The categories were individual exhibits, group exhibits, papers, websites, individual documentaries, and group documentaries.
• The 8th graders spent many weeks researching their given prompts.
• At the end of the contests, judges came to pick winners. There were 3-4 winners per category. (Check out the North Shore School website for names of winners and other info.) Winners get to continue to the Long Island Regional contest in the springtime.
• Additionally, there were some “honorable mentions” for different categories. These categories were more specific such as “Civil Rights Winners.” However, these people will not continue to the finals, despite having “exemplary work.”

That’s what you need to know about the contest overall. All this information is coming from the North Shore Schools website.

My personal opinion on this is that this theme is a very important thing for people to be researching. In the past, there were so many times when people rebelled to get freedom, rights, etc. Learning this may help people understand the struggles of certain minority groups. It is so cool to me that people can make beautiful art pieces out of historical research. It combines school and art in a fun and exciting way. Even if you don’t win, you can know that you put effort into researching something that is extremely important to know. All the projects I saw looked amazing and the participants should be very proud. It is safe to say that I will be looking forward to doing this in 8th grade.