Students shine in history contest

Black Butte School History Day winners. photo provided

Eight Black Butte School students qualified for the State History Day competition to be held at Willamette University April 17. Each student placed first or second at the regional contest in Madras on Saturday, March 6.

The theme this year is "Exploration, Encounter, and Exchange."

Eighth grader Kelsey White created a 10-minute video document on the power of the television lens to capture the Civil Rights struggles in the south. White began her presentation by showing still pictures of African-American lynchings and Florida's Rosewood massacre.

She uses those photos as evidence that coverage of civil rights issues rarely left the South before the lens of television brought it into homes across America in the 1960s.

She examines television's coverage of the Selma, Alabama march and the subsequent passage of the Voting Rights Act to make her point.

Eighth grader Nolan Titchener's documentary features the Indian boarding school encounter as seen through the eyes of the child. He begins with an overview of the government's 1840s policy of Manifest Destiny to explain the six basic procedures used at an all Indian boarding school to assimilate the children into the Euro-American culture.

Titchener ends his documentary with a question with implications for Middle East when he asks: "Does the government still employ a policy of Manifest Destiny today?"

Rebeccah Lovegren, eighth grade, submitted a 2,500-word research paper titled, "Fly With This One!" Her research explores the history of flight and where it has led both as a mode of commerce and in its military role. Lovegren also calls into question how it is that the Wright Brothers get the glory for flight when so many were a part of its development.

Eighth grader Chad Kernutt developed a museum exhibit which explores the impacts of the Transcontinental Railroad. A train enthusiast, he points out both the positive and negative impacts of the building of the railroad.

Sixth and seventh graders Paige Stephens, Rachel Lovegren, Skye Scott and Lauren White created a group exhibit which explores the European Enlightenment ideas as they were exchanged across the Atlantic during America's revolutionary period.

The students interpret the Battle at Yorktown, 1781, as the culminating event that cemented the Enlightenment ideas in America as evidenced by the language in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. In reference to the revolution, a Lafayette quote inspired the students and served as the title of their project: "Humanity has won its battle; liberty now has a country."

In addition to the basic project, the students had to submit a 500-word process paper explaining how they selected the topic, how they conducted the research and how their subject related to the History Day theme. The students also had to include an annotated bibliography with an emphasis on the use of primary resources.