The juniors at Hingham High School are currently working on their National History Day projects. National History Day is a contest that encourages students to discover history about the world through research projects. The theme of the National History Day project this year is rights and responsibilities.  

For this project, students can choose to work individually or with a partner. However, there are different research projects depending on if a student is working alone or with a partner. Individual projects consist of either a paper or website and the partner projects are a documentary or performance. Some schools allow students to do an exhibition, which resembles a poster research project, however Hingham does not. This diversity of options allows students the freedom to choose what interests them. This freedom also carries into the topic of one’s research project as although it must fit the theme, it can be any topic in history.  

Sam Ruddick comments on this flexibility by explaining, “I really liked how we were not only able to choose the format of our research project but also our topic. The flexibility ensures students are comfortable with the project at hand while also being interested in their topic.”  

As mentioned, the topic of this National History Day project’s theme is rights and responsibilities. Junior Lila Johnson responds to this year’s topic by explaining, “I think that the theme for National History Day this year is interesting. There is so much in history that relates to the theme and therefore it allows students a wide range of topics to choose from. Personally, I choose Bradwell vs the state of Illinois and I am super excited to work on it!” 

National History Day projects are the midyear assignments for honors and upper standard level juniors. Therefore, this project acts as the student’s midyear exam. However, for AP students, this is an additional assignment, and they still have an exam. However, what is especially exciting about this project for many students is that in addition to being an assignment for school, it is a national competition. This means that these projects hold the potential to stay with students past mid years as they may go all the way to nationals. Those who place in the top three at nationals are awarded cash prizes.  

Therefore, overall, the National History Day competition is an extremely exciting one for juniors!