Students score at History Day competition

Seven Black Butte School District students turned success at the regional History Day competition in Madras, March 12, into a berth at state level competition at Willamette University in April.

The national history competition engages students in grades 6-12 in a discovery and interpretation of historical topics. Students have to connect their project to this year’s theme “Communication in History: Keys to Understanding.”

Sixth grader Lauren White explored the topic of American Sign Language and its impacts. Lauren contacted Gallaudet University, the first college for the deaf in the U.S., to gather information. She designed a museum display board to communicate her research about how ASL fosters communication and understanding.

Sixth grader Cassy Stephens researched Braille as a communication tool for the blind by following its development in France to the present day.

Her research led her to the American Federation of the Blind and the Oregon School for the Blind. Cassy also displayed her information on a museum board.

Seventh grader Rachel Lovegren and eighth grader Paige Stephens explored Yellow Journalism. With a thesis statement of Yellow Journalism: Communication or Miscommunication, they examined the 1890s newspaper world during the time when the Pulitzers and Hearsts competed against each other by using foreign journalists, cartoons, and sensationalism to sell newspapers.

Ninth grader Kelsey White produced a 2,500-word research essay on “Communication by Nonviolence.”

Her work investigates the use of nonviolence as a communication technique during the civil rights era of the 1960s.

Ninth graders Kelcy Blann and Nolan Titchener created a 10-minute documentary that analyzes the use of sign language not simply as a communication tool, but its impacts on understanding. Kelcy Blann is currently enrolled in an American Sign Language class.

The contest rules require that each project be accompanied by an annotated bibliography which focuses on the use of primary resources.

The students spend an average of 80-100 hours on their projects in addition to their regular schoolassignments.

Between now and the state contest, they will revise and improve their products, and continue research for additional primary resources on their topics.