Maryland History Day last week was really enjoyable. I was a participant in History Day last year and found it to be a fun and educational experience. Compared to last year’s event, I think this year students were more pumped and excited. I really enjoyed walking around the beautiful UMBC campus and talking to the students, teachers, and parents who were participating.

I ran into two people that prove history day is a family event! I ran into Meghan and Chris Perdue, both participating in the performance category. Meghan created a skit about Clara Barton and the legacy she left with the Red Cross of America. She was inspired to write the skit after seeing local actress, Mary Ann Jung, portray Clara Barton. In addition, she thought it was amazing that an organization started over 100 years ago is still in existence. Her brother, Chris, created a skit about Scottish literary figure Robert Burns. He was inspired to choose this topic because he’s interested in everything Scottish. Chris placed in Nationals for his skit. I really respect students who chose to do performances—it takes a lot of creativity and hard work to construct a skit about a historical event or person. Congrats to the Perdue family! It’s nice to see families getting involved.

I also ran into Kim Lopez, a student at Calvert Middle School in Calvert County. Kim created a website project about Helen Taussig, a world famous cardiologist. She was inspired to do the project after talking with one of her doctors at Johns Hopkins who told her about about Taussig. From what I saw of her website, it looked really impressive. Kim earned first place in the Junior Website category and will advance to Nationals. Congrats Kim!

As a soon-to-be graduate of Bohemia Manor High School, I was glad to see some friends involved in history day! My friends Amanda Shervin, Chelsea Davis, Tony Ohanessian, Mike King, and Alyssa Douglas were involved and seem really excited about it. Tony and Mike did an exhibit project about Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Chelsea, Alyssa, and Amanda also did an exhibit about J. Edgar Hoover.

I really enjoyed being a part of Maryland History Day last week. I believe it is a very valuable and educational experience. You can learn more in this than you can in a history class! It forces you to go out to libraries, museums, and archives to learn about a historical event or person. In the fall, I will be going off to college to study to become a history teacher. As an educator, I will encourage students to participate in history day; it is truly a valuable experience that can really benefit you in the long run.

Kyle Dixon is a former Maryland History Day participant and Bohemia Manor High School student.

Tags: Maryland HistoryDay

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 10:49 am and is filed under Maryland History Day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.