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Twelve students from Lylburn Downing Middle School participated in the District 4 Virginia History Day competition on March 9 at Mary Baldwin University.
Virginia History Day is part of a larger competition, National History Day (NHD), which includes top projects from all 50 states and is open to middle and high school students. The theme for this year’s competition is “Frontiers in History: People, Places, and Ideas,” and while students can research a topic of their choice, it must connect back to the theme.
The NHD Club meets at LDMS every week after school and is sponsored by Amanda Conway and Laura Joyner.
Over the past six months, students have been researching their topic during the club time and on their own, and working to create a documentary, performance, paper, exhibit, or website for competition. They must also write a process paper and create an annotated bibliography of both primary and secondary sources used in the project.
In the district competition, eighth-grader Dahlia Obiedat’s individual documentary, “Guernica: Crossing the Frontier Between Art and the Horrors of Modernity & War,” placed first in the junior category.
Eighth-grader Sammy Eastwood created a documentary entitled “Bebop: An American Frontier,” which placed second, and eighthgraders Edison Rahl and Luke Drumbl’s documentary, “Penicillin: The ‘Miracle Drug’ That Changed Medicine Forever,” placed first in the junior group documentary category.
Seventh-grader Grant Swenty’s exhibit on the “Battle of Horseshoe Bend, New to You, Old to Me. A New Frontier?” placed third in the junior individual exhibit category.
Ru Bucy and Elliott Allen’s “Frontiers in Technology: How the 1984 Apple Macintosh Changed the World” placed first in the junior group website category, and Emil Hierman, Joe Vargas and Sarah Edgar’s “The Medici Family and Their Impact to the Renaissance” placed second in the same category.
Graham Shester’s individual website on “Entrepreneurs of Black Wall Street” placed third in the junior category, and sixth-grader Jude Eicholz’s website, “The Navajo Code Talkers,” placed second in the junior individual website category.
All projects that placed first, second or third advance to state competition that will be held April 29 at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond.
